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1 



1 







THE 


YELLOW DANGER 


OR, WHAT MIGH T HAPPEN IF THE DIVI- 
SION OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE SHOULD 
ESTRANGE ALL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 


BY 


M. P." SHIEL 

AUTHOR or “the MAN-STEALERS,” “ PRINCE ZALESKI,*' ETC. 


BREVIS ESSE LABORO ! 

Messrs, Horace and Gibbon. 



R. F. FENNO & COMPANY, 9 AND ii EAST 
sixteenth street : NEW YORK CITY 
LONDON — GRANT RICHARDS 

1899 . 


R. F. FBNNO & COMPANY 


TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



SECOND COPY, 


The Yellow Danger 

v) vwviz. V O ^ , 


CHAPTER I 


THE NATIONS AND A MAH 

As all the world knows, the Children’s Ball of the 
Lady Mayoress takes place yearly on the night of 
‘‘ Twelfth Day,” 6th January. In the year ’98 the 
function was even more successful than usual, owing 
to Sir Henry Burdett’s fine idea that the children 
should be photographed in support of the Prince of 
Wales’ Hospital Fund. The little Walter Raleighs, 
Amy Robsarts, flocked in throngs to the photographer’s 
studio adjoining the grand salon of the Mansion House ; 
while all that space outside between the Mansion 
House, the Bank, and the Stock Exchange was a mere 
mass of waiting, arriving, and departing vehicles. 

If anything tended to take a little of their exuber- 
ance from this and other New Year jubilations, it was 
a certain cloudiness in the political sky ; nothing very 
terrifying ; yet something so real, that nearly every 
one felt it with disquiet. An Irish member, celebrated 
for his bulls,” was heard to say : “ Take my word for 

it, there’s going to be a sunset in the East.” Men 
strolled into their clubs, and, with or without a yawn, 
said : Is there going to be a row, then ? ” Some one 
might answer : ^‘Not a bit of it; it’ll pass off pres- 
ently, you’ll see.” But another would be sure to add : 
“ Things are looking black enough, all the same.” 

It was just as when, on a clear day at sea, low and 
jagged edges of disconnected clouds appear inkily on 
the horizon-edge, and no one is quite certain whether 
or not they will meet, and whelm the sky, and sink 
the ship. 

But the horizon had hardly darkened, when again, it 
cleared. The principal cause of fear had been what 

7 


8 


The Yellow Danger 

had looked uncommonly like a conspiracy of the three 
great Continental Powers to oust England from pre- 
dominance in the East. First there was the seizure of 
Kiao-Chau, the bombastic farewells of the German 
Eoyal brothers ; then immediately, the aggressive at- 
titude of Russia at Port Arthur ; then immediately 
the rumor that France had seized Hainan, was send- 
ing an expedition to Yun-nan, and had ships in Hoi- 
How harbor. 

All this had the look of concert ; for within the last 
few years it had got to be more and more recognized by 
the British public thafc centuries of neighborhood had 
fostered among the Continental nations a certain spirit 
of kinship, in which the Island-Kingdom was no sharer. 

In the course of years the Straits of Dover had 
widened into an ocean. Europe had receded from 
Britain, and Britain, in her jn’ide, had drawn back 
from Europe. From the curl of the mustache, to the 
color and cut of the evening-dress, to the manner in 
which women held up their skirts, there was similarity 
between French and German, between German and 
Russian and Austrian, and dissimilarity between all 
these and English. 

It is true that the Russian hated the German, and 
the German the Russian and the French ; but their 
hatred was the hatred of brothers, always ready to 
combine against the outsider. This had been begun 
to be suspected, then recognized, by the British nation. 
Alone and friendless must England tread the wine- 
press of modern history, solitary in her majesty ; and 
if ever an attempt were made to stop her stately 
progress, she was prepared to find that her foe was the 
rest of Europe. 

But very soon after the unrest had arisen, it began 
to subside. France denied the annexation of Hainan ; 
the semi-official Nord-deutsclie AUgemeine Zeitiing, in- 
spired by Wilhelm, painted Germany as the patron of 
commerce, with an amiable weakness for theatrical dis- 
plays ; Russia was defeated in the matter of the re- 
moval of Mr. MacLeavy Brown, and seemed sufficiently 
limp after it ; while spirits were raised by the probable 


The Nations and a Man g 

guarantee of a Chinese loan by the British Govern- 
ment. 

But meanwhile, at the children’s ball at the Mansion 
House, events were working in a quite different 
direction from that of peaceful settlement. 

Ada Seward was the presiding deity in the nursery 
of Mrs. Pattison of Fulham. On the night of the 6th, 
Dr. and Mrs. Pattison had to be present at a ball in 
the AVest End, and Ada on that night was busy ; for it 
was necessary for her, first of all, to convey Master 
Johnnie Pattison, costumed as Francis I., to the Man- 
sion House ; and then to hurry homeward again to 
take Miss Nellie Pattison to a children’s evening 
with charades in South Kensington. 

The fact that it was wet when she reached the Man- 
sion House may have had something to do with her 
troubles. The landing-place was occupied by some 
other carriages, and dismounting with her charge, an 
umbrella over him, she cried to the coachman in a 
hurried manner through the drizzle : 

AA'ait till I come back.” 

The man afterwards declared that he understood her 
to say : 

‘‘ Go away, and come back.” 

At any rate, when Ada again came forth into the 
crush to look for the Pattison brougham, it was no- 
where to be found. 

And now her lips went up in a pout of vexation. 
^‘AYhat on earth is any one to do now ?” she said. 
She was pressed for time, and yet at a loss. 

The throng of private carriages seemed to have 
banished all cabs from the region of the Mansion 
House. She looked and saw none; then into her 
pocket, and found only sixpence. These two circum- 
stances decided her against the cab. Instead, she ran 
a few yards, dodging among the carriages, and at the 
entrance to Poultry, skipped into a moving ^bus. 

She sat in a corner for five minutes, with agonized 
glances out of the door at the slowly receding clocks. 
Then some one — a man sitting nearly opposite, whom 
she had not noticed — addressed her ; 


10 


The Yellow Danger 

Why, Miss Ada, is that you ?” 

Oh ! ” she cried, Mr. Brabant, is that you ? It’s 
a long time since — how are you ? ” 

‘‘Well, I’m pretty fair. Miss Ada, as times go, you 
know. Hope you are the same.” 

“ Still in the army ? ” 

“ Oh yes — the Duke of Cambridge’s Own, you know. 
Yon living in London now ? ” 

“Yes -at Fulham.” 

Here conversation flagged ; and in that miuute^s in- 
terval, Brabant, with a sudden half-turn to his left, 
said : 

“ Just allow me to introduce you to my friend here 
— Miss Seward — Dr. Yen How.” 

In the light of the ’bus lamp Ada Seward saw a very 
small man, dressed in European clothes, yet a man 
whom she at once took to be Chinese. With a 
wrinkled grin, he put out his hand and shook hers. 

He was a man of remarkable visage. When his hat 
was off, one saw that he was nearly bald, and that his 
expanse of brow was majestic. There was something 
brooding, meditative, in the meaning of his long eyes ; 
and there was a brown, and dark, and specially dirty 
shade in the yellow tan of his skin. 

He was not really a Chinaman — or rather, he was 
that, and more. He was the son of a Japanese father 
by a Chinese woman. He combined these antagonistic 
races in one man. In Dr. Yen How was the East. 

H0 was of noble feudal descent, and at Tokio, but 
for his Chinese blood, would have been styled Count. 
Yot that the admixture of blood was very visible in his 
appearance ; in China he passed for a Chinese, and in 
Japan for a Jap. 

If ever man was cosmopolitan, that man was Dr. Yen 
How. No European could be more familiar with the 
minutiae of Western civilization. His degree of doctor 
he had obtained at the University of Heidelberg ; for 
years he had practised as a specialist in the diseases of 
women and children at San Francisco. 

lie possessed an income of a thousand tael (about 
£300) from a tea-farm ; but his life had been passed in 


II 


The Nations and a Man 

the practise of the grinding industry of a slave. 
Nothing equaled his assiduity, his minuteness, his at- 
tention to detail. He had once written to the Royal 
Observatory at the Cape pointing out a trifling error in 
a long logarithmic calculation of the declension of one 
of the moons of J upiter, originating from the observa- 
tory. 

In the East he could have climbed at once to the 
very top of the tree — Even in the West, had he chosen. 
But he chose to lie low, remaining unnoticed, studying, 
observing, making of himself an epitome of the West, 
as he was an embodiment of the East. 

In whatever country he happened to be — and he was 
never for many years in any one — he was most often to 
be found in the company of people of the lower classes ; 
and of these he had a very intimate knowledge. So 
great was his mental breadth, that he was unable to 
sympathize with either Eastern or Western distinctions 
of class and rank. He often struck up chance friend- 
ships with soldiers and sailors about the capitals of 
Europe ; and these patronized and exhibited him here 
and there. 

Yen How knew that he was being patronized, and 
submitted to it — and smiled meekly. In reality, he 
cherished a secret and bitter aversion to the white race. 

He had two defects — his shortness of sight, which 
caused him to wear spectacles ; and his inability, in 
speaking without effort, to pronounce the word little.” 
He still called it '‘ lillee.” 

On that date of 6th January, when he drove westward 
with Brabant and Ada Seward, he was perhaps forty 
years of age, but seemed anything between sixteen and 
sixty ; a hard, omniscient, cosmopolitan little man, 
tough as oak, dry as chips. 

Yet in that head were leavening some big thoughts ; 
and his heart was capable of tremendous passions. 

In reality, could one have known it, as he fared on- 
ward through the drizzle in the trundling ’bus, smiling 
behind liis spectacles, he was the most important per- 
3 onage in London, or perhaps in the world. 

Pr* Yen How was capable of anything. In him was 


12 


The Yellow Danger 

the Stoic, and the cynic, and the tiger ; with a turn of 
the mind he could become a savant, or a statesman, or 
a crossing-sweeper, or a general. He possessed this 
excellence : a clear brain. 

By one of those extraordinary freaks of nature for 
which there is no accounting, this man wanted to see Ada 
Seward a second time after parting with her that night. 

Brabant, who had known her in her native town of 
Cheltenham, accompanied her to the gate of the Pat- 
tison villa. Yen How with them. 

As he was leaving her, the little doctor put his mouth 
to her ear, and whispered hurriedly : 

“ I will wait here to-morrow night at eight for one 
lillee hiss.” 

The girl was astounded. 

Well, the idea ! '' she just gasped. 

Before she could proclaim her indignation, the two 
men turned off. 

Till he reached his home in Portland Street, Yen 
How was engaged in one long, continuous, secret smile 
— a smile at his own expense. This outburst of his in 
the r61e of lover was new to him, absolutely. His re- 
lations with women hitherto had consisted in the busi- 
ness of curing their sicknesses. By what stibtle physi- 
ological or psychological affinity this one particular Eng- 
lish girl had been able to evoke from this particular dry 
Chino- Japanese a request for ‘‘one lillee kiss,’” he was 
unable to divine. Such an affinity there undoubtedly 
was ; but its origin lay among reasons far too abstruse 
for the unraveling of Yen. 

Yen How smiled that first night, but he presently 
found that this was no smiling matter. 

At eight the next evening he was duly at the Pat- 
tison gate ; but, alas, no Ada was to be seen. Ada, 
however, was there, though invisible. She, with the 
Pattison cook, whom she had brought out to enjoy the 
fun, was hiding behind a shrubbery, and peering 
through, shaking with laughter at the futile waiting 
of the little doctor. 

And now Yen How, for the first time in his life, be- 
gan to suffer on account of a woman. 


The Nations and a Man 


13 

He loved ; and in his love was the concentrated 
passion of many other men. Melted rock is lava — and 
he suffered. 

He used at night to hang about the house, which 
was lonely at that hour, waiting. To his patience 
there was no end — to his resolution to possess her, by 
fair means or foul, no end. 

Even in the matter of love the Eastern is essentially 
different from the Western. It is impossible for us, in 
anything, to understand them, so foreign are they. 
With us love is frequent, a powerful mood ; with them 
the whole man is involved, and love becomes a passion 
having all the characteristics of ordinary flame. 

One night, as he lurked about, he met her returning 
from some shopping. By this time Yen How had be- 
come a standing joke for Ada in the kitchen and the 
servants’ bedroom. He walked to her. 

Ah,” he said with sideward head, and a cajoling 
smile, you are here, then ? You will give poor Yen 
How one lillee kiss ? ” 

The whole idea of courtship possessed by tliis clown- 
ish and unpractised lover consisted in asking for one 
little kiss. Ada Seward’s views of the matter were 
more elaborate. She despised his strong simplicity. 

Perhaps you are not aware whom it is you are talk- 
ing to,” she said. 

Yen was aware ; he could have shut his eyes and 
drawn an exact picture of her face. 

Ah,” he said, “not even one lillee ” 

“I’ll give you one lillee box of soap to wash your 
face, if you like ! ” she cried, running and looking back. 
The house was near ; he could not overtake her. 

Perhaps it would have been impossible for Miss 
Seward to utter words more calculated to drive Yen to 
madness than this reference to “soap.” If his suit 
was hopeless, it was now borne in upon him that it was 
hopeless on account of his race. The girl did not listen 
to him, and reject him ; she rejected him without tak- 
ing him into consideration at all. It was as though a 
mule, or a cat, had asked her to be his. 

But his persistence did not fail. He flung his other 


14 


The Yellow Danger 

pursuits to the wind, and the Pattison villa became for 
him the center of the world. Sometimes he caught 
bright glimpses of her. Once again he met her in the 
street, and once again she overwhelmed him with jeers. 
So passed January, February, and March. 

To Yen How, the bourgeois, the thought never at all 
occurred that the girl was below bourgeois class. He 
was a great man, and merely saw in Ada the eternal 
Avoman. Dukes marry duchesses ; but the Goethes, the 
Mahomets, wed cooks and water-carriers. On that 
very plan was built Yen How. 

At the beginning of April he stood one night outside 
the Pattison gate, when he saw her. It was eleven 
oYlock ; she was coming from the theater, leaning on 
the arm of Private Brabant. Brabant, since their 
meeting in the ^bus, had several times been out” 
Avith her. 

As the two approached, Ada saw the little doctor. 

‘‘There’s that little Chinaman again, John,” she 
said, pressing Brabant’s arm. “ It’s getting too much 
of a good thing now, isn’t it ? ” 

“ Confound the little rat,” said Brabant ; “he wants 
his nut cracked, I should think, doesn’t he ? ” 

The doctor tripped up to them, smiling nervously. 
Before he could speak, Brabant, who had had a glass, 
said : 

“ Come, come, Mr. Yen How, get out of this. Can’t 
you see the young lady doesn’t want you fooling round 
her ? ” 

“AVell — but — my soldier friend,” said Yen, “there 
is no harm done ” 

“ Come, get out of it ! ” said Brabant more roughly. 

“No, no, you go too fast, you see,” began Yen 
apologetically. 

“ Are you going — yes or no ! ” said Brabrant, noAv 
flushing angrily. 

“ Go away, Avhy don’t you ? ” put in Ada. 

“Ah ! I — I am here to see my lillee girl,” hazarded 
Yen. 

“ Oh, don’t be a stupid little goose of ^ Chinaman ! 
Just fancy ! ” she said. 


The Nations and a Man 15 

This was the most unkiudest cut of all for Yen. He 
winced, touched with anger. 

Are you going or not ? said Brabant, an ultima- 
tum in his tone. 

‘‘ Yo,” said Yen ; then, more decidedly, ‘^no, no 

Brabant put out his arm and pushed him on the 
shoulder. 

It was not a violent push, but in an instant the 
doctor^s face was almost black with rage. He had in 
his hand a stout bamboo stick, which he at once lifted 
and slashed with terrible force across the soldier’s 
cheek, leaving a bruised weal which Brabant bore with 
him to the grave. 

In retaliation the soldier lifted his large and bony 
fist, and sent it into the doctor’s face. Yen How 
dropped. 

The street was deserted. Not knowing what to do, 
the girl and the soldier bent over him for five minutes, 
when, to their surprise. Yen How raised himself slowly, 
placed his handkerchief against his red and dripping 
face, and slowly limped aWay without a single word. 

Once he stopped deliberately as he moved off, turned, 
and looked at them ; and in the moonlight they dis- 
tinctly saw him twice shake his forefinger warningly in 
their direction. 

Then he went on his way. 

Between that night and the beginning of May he 
never once stepped outside the house in which he lived. 
He had resumed his close and far-reaching studies. 

At the beginning of May ho was on board the Penm- 
sular, bound for the East. 

By the end of September he was a member of the 
Japanese Parliament. 

In December we find him a leading spirit in the 
Tsung-li-Yamen, or Chinese Foreign Office, and mak- 
ing voyages between Tokio and Pekin. 


CHAPTER II 


THE HEATHEH CHIHEE 

Yen How was nothing if not heathen. He was that 
first of all. 

His intellect was like dry ice. Though often secretly 
engaged in making The Guess, on the whole, he despised 
all religions — the faiths of the AVest, the superstitions 
of the East, he despised them all alike. He was full 
of light, but without a hint of warmth ; and so lacked 
the religious emotion. 

It is not likely that ordinary ethical considerations 
would much influence the aims of such a man. He was 
like an avalanche, as cold, and as resistless. 

What was Dr. Yen How’s aim ? Simply told, it was 
to possess one white woman, ultimately, and after all. 
He had also the subsidiary aim of doing an ill turn to 
all the other white women, and men, in the world. 

If the earth had opened and swallowed him, then he 
Avould have renounced his hope ; but for no lesser reason. 
He went coolly and patiently to work to secure his 
desire. 

But no man, surely, ever employed means so huge to 
an end so small. A European, perhaps any other man, 
having once conceived the means, would quickly have 
forgotten the end in the tremendous interest of the 
means themselves. But in all that Yen did the face 
of Ada Seward was always consciously before his eyes.” 
The nature of this man was as simple as the elemental 
rock. 

His career in the East, from the first hour of his re- 
turn, was meteoric. He rose like a rocket. The order 
of the day in China, and especially in Japan, was 
AVestern modernity ; and here was a man who simply 


The Heathen Chinee 


17 

breathed Western modernity, and who yet was an 
Eastern of the Easterns. His skin was more yellow 
than the yellow man’s, and his brain was more white 
than the white man’s. When the English Inspector- 
General of Roads and Bridges at Tokio asserted that 
the Imperial tax in Britain on railway passenger traffic 
was, he believed, £3 per cent. Yen How’s face wrinkled 
into a chaos of smiles. ‘‘Yo — two,” he said quietly; 
and no one doubted which was right. Yen introduced 
a new method of protecting bridges during the daily 
earthquakes of Japan, by means of articulated joists 
and sleepers. AYhen the Naval Director at Pekin in- 
troduced a specification for a new battle-ship to be 
mounted with two 111-ton guns. Yen proved by sta- 
tistics (which he quoted from memory) that the ten- 
dency of the most modern shipbuilding was rather in 
the direction of quick-firing guns than of heavy 
armaments. The 111-ton became 45-ton. He was soon 
invaluable. 

At this time the people of Japan were strongly ex- 
cited against the freebooting of Russia and Germany in 
China, and strongly animated in favor of England. 
England was, in fact, the beau-ideal, the Great Pattern, 
of Japan. It required no great force of imagination 
for her to call herself the Britain of the East ” ; this 
notion at once occurred, of itself, to every one ; and, 
of course, the copyist sympathized with her original 
rather than with others. With England predominant 
in China, moreover, there would be an assurance of free 
trade ; and Japan was a trader. So strong was the en- 
thusiasm in favor of England, that the nation was even 
willing to put its fleet at the disposal of its Big Model 
in case of need. 

The ulterior purposes of Japan, of course, remained 
in doubt. She was even then building in various parts 
of the world an additional fleet, which, when finished, 
would make her a sea Power far in advance of any nation 
in the whole earth, with the exception of England 
lierself. What in the hour of her manhood, when she 
had cast her leading-strings, she would do with this vast 
force was a disturbing question to many ; but, mean- 
2 


i8 The Yellow Danger 

while, it was clearly her intention to use England aS 
an ally — till the years ripened. 

Under the Marquis Ito’s Ministry Yen How was 
offered a post of Under-Secretary, but he refused it. 
He suggested that he should become Secretary to the 
Minister as his private servant ; and this was arranged. 
He knew that high public rank in Japan would exclude 
him from high public rank in China, if his double 
personality should become known — and China was the 
chief field of his labors. Meanwhile, he was drawing 
large revenues as a mandarin, and lived, for his own 
purposes, in a style nearly princely. 

Poh ! he said to the Marquis Ito, sipping tea among 
rugs, there are no statesmen now. Statesmen ! — there 
are no such things. Not here — not in Europe. An 
ordinary man is a man who thinks in days ; a statesman 
proper thinks in thousands of years. The outlook and 
computations of a statesman should be as much vaster 
than those of a private person, as a country is vaster 
than a tea-house. Believe me, there are no states- 
men.’^ 

Come, doctor, why do you say that ? ” asked the 
Marquis. 

^‘Look forward five hundred, a thousand years, 
Marquis, and what do you see ? ” answered Yen How. 

‘ Is it not this ? — the white man and the yellow man 
in their death-grip, contending for the earth. The 
white and the yellow — there are no others. The black 
is the slave of both ; the brown does not count. But 
there are those two ; and when the day comes that they 
stand face to face in dreadful hate, saying, ^ One or 
other must quit this earth,’ shall I tell you which side 
will win ? ” 

Which do you think ? ” 

‘^The white will whn. Marquis.” 

Perhaps I differ from you,” said the Marquis Ito. 

Ah ! you differ from me. But I am right all the 
same ; and I mean, sooner or later, to prove it to you 
abundantly, abundantly ! The white will win, I tell 
you ! You great men in Japan are trying to copy them, 
straining your poor necks to come up with them ; but 


The Heathen Chinee 


I have passed my life in studying them — and IVe got 
something to tell you ; listen to it : you cannot, Mar- 
quis, you cannot, you cannot ! ” 

‘‘Our Navy already began the Marquis. 

“ Poh ! your Navy ! Who built it for you ? It was 
they. Your Navy is like a razor in the hands of an ape 
which has seen its master use it. The brute may or may 
not cut its own throat with it. And as soon as they 
build a navy for you, they will build one twice as big 
for themselves, and twice as good. There is no reason 
why you should not follow them, and go on following 
them — only understand that you cannot catch them / 
And this is another thing that you should understand 
— that the longer you follow them, the farther they get 
away from you. Their rate of progress is continually 
increasing. Every day that passes over the world gives 
them an additional advantage over you. To-day their 
guns can mow you down by hundreds ; in a hundred 
years they will mow you down by thousands ; in five 
hundred years by millions. Can’t you see ? — you are 
losing time ! ” 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ Ah, I mean that there are no longer any states- 
men, Marquis. The eye of the statesman ranges far, 
far into the tracts of the future, doesn’t it ? But we ! 
Here are we now — we Japanese, we Chinese, we yellow 
men — playing about in little diplomatic mud-puddles 
with French, and Russian, and English and German, as 
if all that mattered two sen ! And all the time we know 
well, yet seem not to know, that French, and English, 
and the rest, are equally our foe, and tyrant, and vul- 
ture, one not more than the other ! That if we do not 
eat them all now, at once, they all will swallow us 
whole some day, soon — soon. And to see China fight- 
ing with Japan in such a case, and Japan banging into 
China— is it not childish enough to make a donkey, or 
even a Grand Lama, laugh ? There are no statesmen 
any longer. Marquis.” 

“ Well, come, I see something in what you are driv- 
ing at,” said Ito. “We and China are like two birds 
pecking at each other on a bough, when suddenly they 


20 


The Yellow Danger 

are both down the belly of a serpent, which has been 
calmly watching them. AYell, but what are we to do ? 
By your own showing, the birds can do nothing against 
the serpent. 

'' Did I say that ? ’’ asked Yen, lifting his eyebrows 
in innocent surprise. Oh, I didn^’t mean it ! There 
are many birds, you see, and few serpents. In the 
world to-day there are 408,000,000 Christians and — 
mark the figures — 1^004,000,000 non-Christians. I 
can see that you are startled.” 

You think that by sheer force of numbers ” 

Yes, if we had taken our oj)portunity in time — if 
we had struck two hundred — a hundred years ago. 
Even to-day I believe that it is hardly too late, if the 
yellow race can find a great leader. I am perfectly 
sure that in a hundred years’ time it to ill be too late.” 

Why so?” 

I have told you. By that time the white man will 
have something like a magician’s power over all nature. 
He will say to the mountains and the seas : Be re- 
moved ! ’ — and at his mere whisper they will obey him. 
We yellow men, too, will have advanced, but they will 
have vastly outstripped u.'. A\^e cannot follow them, I 
tell you. The day will come when our mere numbers 
will no longer be of any importance in balking and 
overthrowing them.” 

You talk of big things, my friend,” said Ito. Are 
you serious ? ” 

Yes, Marquis, I am serious.” 

‘‘You advocate a League of the yellow races ? ” 

‘‘I do.” 

“ He ! he ! the idea tickles me ; it is so very far 
from realization — there are so many obstacles ” 

“ Yo, really — I think not. I believe it is very near 
to realization. Events are at this moment in progress 
at Pekin which ^yi\\ force it to accomplishment — soon. 
Suppose I teil you that I, personally, have laid those 
events in train ? ” 

“ You, doctor ? What, are you going to lead us all, 
then, against Paris and London ? He ! he ! ” 

“ Perhaps, Marquis.” 


The Heathen Chinee 


21 


What, to face the Xordenfeldts, and tlie Maxims, 
and the Krupps ? The Chinese will run frojii the first 
twelve-pounder I ” 

“ There ma]f not he any tioclve-ponnders there lehen 
they get to Paris and London^^ said Yen How with 
absolute coolness, yet with an emphasis and an intona- 
tion of solemnity in his voice which held the Marquis 
from answer for a minute. 

‘‘Really, I don’t understand you,’’ he said at last. 

“Y'et my meaning should be clear.” 

“ Xo — do explain yourself.” 

Yen, How rose to his feet before he answered. 

“Marquis,” he said, “is it possible you do not see 
that China has it in her power to turn Europe into an 
exhausted waste within, say, three months from to- 
night, without firing a single shot, or spending a single 
tael?” 


f 


e 


CHAPTER III 


RUMORS OF WAR 

As the year wore on, some of the International dif- 
ficulties centering round Kiao-Chau, Port Arthur, and 
Hainan reopened. In England more than all the old 
unrest revived. 

What added to this unrest was the fact that some of 
the items of the rapidly-succeeding batches of news 
were quite inexplicable. 

From the beginning of the year it had been known 
that Germany had not made so brilliant a bargain in 
the acquisition of Kiao-Chau as she had imagined. 
The territory placed under her sovereign rights ” 
had been strictly limited by China, and granted only as 
a ‘‘lease.” When Prince Henry of Prussia arrived 
with the Deutschland and Gefion, he found that there 
were no “laurels” to win, and nobody at whom to 
strike out with his absurd mailed fist. 

Moreover,- on much the same terms as Germany ob- 
tained Kiao-Chau, and, later in the year, Russia obtained 
Port Arthur, Britain obtained AVei-hai-Wei and Mirs 
Bay. 

What, then, was the surprise of the world, including 
the Germans themselves, when, in the middle of De- 
cember, came the news that China had ceded a large 
additional region to the Kaiser, absolutely without 
conditions ! 

There was not a single brain in Europe which could 
divine the motive of this virtual gift. 

At this time Li Hung Chang, recalled to power by 
the Emperor at the beginning of the year, was still at 
the head of affairs in Pekin. But in the short space 
of two months he had acquired the habit of taking no 
22 


Rumors of War 


23 


step without the suggestion of the new element in 
Chinese politics, the far-seeing Oriental-European, the 
much-toiling member of the Tsung-li-Yamen, the 
omniscient Yen How. Already Yen had swung him- 
self into the position of the virtual ruler of China. 

Yen How seemed to Li Hung Chang, haunted as the 
old statesman had always been by the vision of dis- 
memberment and downfall which overhung China, 
something like an angel of light. Here was another 
brain which saw as his had all along seen — only far 
more clearly, and with powers of invention far vaster 
to avert the catastrophe. 

‘^Let us be definite,’’ Yen had said, in words which 
old Li long remembered, one night as they smoked to- 
gether alone on a moonlit veranda. Do let us be 
honest with ourselves, your Excellency ! You agree 
with me that the yellow man is doomed — if the white 
man is not ; in your heart you think it. Then let us 
say it in definite words ; for as soon as ever we have 
said it, we have gone half-way toward grappling with 
our fate.” 

Ah, I have said it often and often,” answered Li, 

but to what good ? ” 

If you believe that now is the time for action, as I 
do, you have the matter in your own hand.” 

How so ? ” 

‘‘ To me it is clearer than the moonlight there. The 
facts of the situation seem to stare me in the face.” 

Speak, Yen How.” 

I will speak, your Excellency. To me it seems 
that if we could supply a motive to the combined Jap- 
anese and Chinese nations to traverse Asia and the 
Caucasus, and then to overrun the Europe of to-day, 
there is no power on earth that could permanently 
check the overwhelming momentum of their progress.” 

^^It is nonsense, my son,” said Li, with a pull at his 
long pipe. 

""Note this,” replied Yen — "" I only say that I helieve 
—for who can be sure ? The white man is strong and 
stern ; his frown is dreadful. I only say that I believe 
— though a host of four hundred millions cannot be 


24 The Yellow Danger 

mown flown in a day, yonr Excellency. The throats 
of the Maxims might grow hoarse and burst at this 
task. Still, perha23S you are right — perhaps I talk 
nonsense. I did not seriously mean to propose a march 
against the Maxim thunder. But I have a thought — 
a thought. Suppose China and Japan can take away 
the Maxims and then march afterwards.” 

Speak your meaning. Yen How,” said Li ; all is 
dark to me.” 

We wish the white races killed,” answered Yen ; 

well, there are two ways, are there not ? We might 
kill them ourselves — that, you say, is nonsense. The 
other way is to get them to kill one another.” 

Li’s pipe came from his mouth, and the outer corners 
of his eyes screwed up into an expression of the most 
exquisite enjoyment. 

What is left alive of them after their mutual 
slaughter,” Yen How went on, we can kill. Their 
lands will be w'eak with loss of blood, their treasures 
will be exhausted — there will be no Maxims there any 
more.” 

At these last words his own eyes, too, wrinkled up 
into delicious merriment. 

The trump card is in the hand of China,” he said. 

How the white races were to be made to destroy one 
another Li never asked, though the conversation lasted 
far into the night. He knew well. That, at least, was 
simple. 

‘‘England,” said Yen as they parted, “ she is the 
worst. All the others against her” 

A few weeks afterwards the cession of large additional 
territories in China to Germany was rumored. 

And now followed, in rapid succession, a series of the 
most startling, the most inexplicable reports. 

It seemed as if China was not waiting for dismem- 
berment from abroad, but was dismembering herself 
wilfully, with precipitate frenzy. 

First came the intelligence that France had been be- 
sought by the Chinese Government to assume the Pro- 
tectorate, without conditions, of Hainan, and Yun-nan. 

These few lines of telegram threw Europe into a state . 


Rumors of War 


25 

of fever. It was decided by every one that, if the in- 
telligence was true, no earthly consideration of risk 
would keep the rapacious hand of the Frenchman from 
grasping at this plum. 

In a week or so it was definitely known that the news 
was true, and that France had accepted the offer. 
Eumors of war filled the air. The world was agog, 
and every spot v/as an arena for discussion. Only one 
man was silent — the British Foreign Secretary. The 
newspapers besought him for a word; he remained 
wrapped in taciturnity. A deputation of merchants 
waited upon the Under-Secretary; he answered only 
with a few strong words of hope. 

At this time Yen How^s name got into the papers. 
It was said that this mysterious man, whose dazzling 
rise in the Celestial Empire was sketched, had recently 
taken a fresh journey to Tokio. Then a vague tele- 
gram, printed in England in small nonpareil type, ap- 
peared, stating that the probable object of Yen How^s 
renewed journey was to conclude a secret treaty between 
China and Japan. But the report was unsubstantiated. 

The real bomb was yet to burst into the midst of 
Europe. It was hurled by the St. Petersburg corre- 
spondent of the Daily Neius. 

China had offered to Kussia the protectorate of the 
Yangtse Valley. 

It was now, for the first time, that it entered two or 
three of the shrewdest heads in Europe that China was 
deliberately seeking to plunge the world into war by 
working upon the rapacity and selfish greed of the 
nations. 

One gentleman, living at a country-house in Hamp- 
shire, wrote to the Times to this effect. But his letter 
attracted no attention. 

Yet, looking back now, it seems strange that the 
idea did not occur to others. For it must be remem- 
bered that the Yangtse Valley had been regarded as 
peculiarly the sphere of English power. More than 
this, England had now partly guaranteed a Chinese 
loan of twelve millions sterling, and it was agreed that 
the security for this should consist of the land-tax and 


26 


The Yellow Danger 

the unpledged part of the Customs dues. Xow, the 
chief source of both land-tax and Customs dues was 
the Yangtse Valley. 

Yet the next day the Eussian Novosti published an 
inspired article, stating that on no account could Russia 
withdraAV from the prominent place into which events 
had forced her in the East. 

The feeling in England was one of horror at the blind 
and criminal cupidity of the Continental nations. The 
word war" was on every tongue. Twice in one day 
there were hurried meetings of the Cabinet. Thou- 
sands of private letters poured in upon the Foreign 
Office, urging patience and firmness. 

But the hand of the Government was forced in an 
unexpected manner. 

Two items of news followed each other rapidly. 

First, that on the 21st day of the 12th moon of the 
24th year of Kuang Hsii — that is to say, on the 14th 
December 1898 — the Yellow Jacket had once more 
been taken from Li Hung Chang ; and that the dom- 
inant talents of the man. Yen How, had triumphed 
over all obstacles, and raised him to the very head of 
affairs at the Court of Pekin. 

The next day a telegram from Sir C. M. Macdonald, 
the British Minister in China, reached the Foreign 
Office. This was at once made public. 

It stated that China professed herself unable to meet 
the next accruing interest-instalment on the loan, 
though the Minister had information from Sir Robert 
Hart, the Controller of the Imperial Maritime Customs, 
which led him to doubt the avowal of inability. 

Whatever else this might mean, it certainly seemed 
to mean war. The security for China^s default, real or 
pretended, which was due to England, had already been 
placed under the control of Russia. 

In the House of Commons the Under-Secretary stated 
that there was still a hope of peace — a hope that the 
Empire of Russia would act with that spirit of fairness 
and magnanimity in this crisis which alone could prove 
her worthy of her great traditions." These words were 
borne at a run by dozens of excited members to in- 


Rumors of War 


27 


terested individuals among the crowd which surrounded 
the House from Westminster Bridge round to the 
Aquarium. 


London went to sleep with some degree of quietude 
that night, Mr. Curzon’s reply having been published 
in an eagerly bought-up 10 o^clock edition. 

But the next morning, Mr. Goschen being abroad 
at an early hour, it was suddenly discovered that, by 
some extraordinary means, Malta was telegraphically 
isolated from England ; and a hurried telegram was at 
once despatched from the Admiralty to Admiral Sir 
Michael Culme-Seymour, the Flag-Officer in Commis- 
sion at Portsmouth, 


CHAPTER IV 


FIUST BLOOD 

Before eleven o'clock the Majestic^ the flag-ship of 
the Channel Squadron, was leaving Portsmouth harbor 
behind her at the rate of ten knots. She was under 
the command of the senior oflicer in command of the 
squadron, Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Stephenson, and 
with her went the little gunboat Halcyon. 

The mystery underlying the sudden journey of this 
couple was not difficult to unravel. The truth was, 
the Government was greatly startled by the event of 
the morning. The Majestic was, in reality, a convoy 
to the Halcyon ; the smaller vessel was acting as a 
despatch-boat to Malta, and the battle-ship was seeing 
her on her journey till she was deemed to be out of 
danger of molestation. 

It had come to that already. 

At the Government offices the words ‘‘treachery" 
and “war "had risen to more than one agitated lip. 
Europe, it was felt, was drifting, drifting — whither ? 

The task of the Halcyon was to warn the Governor 
of Malta, and to order the mobilization of the Med- 
iterranean Fleet near the Straits of Gibraltar. It 
might be necessary at a few hours' notice to block the 
entrance of the Mediterranean ; it might even be 
necessary to hurl back a foreign invader from the shores 
of England, and the Channel Squadron was wofully 
limited in weight of metal. 

During the day business in London came practically 
to a standstill. Wholesale withdrawals of foreign 
securities were reported from the City. By 3 P. M. it 
was generally kno'wn that a military attache to the 
Embassy at Paris had arrived by private yacht with a 


First Blood 


29 

sealed despatch from Sir E. J. Mouson, and had 
hurried to the Foi-eign Office. 

A day of almost breathless tension reached its 
climax when, at 9 p. m., Mr. Curzon made the an- 
nouncement to a full House that peaceful negotiations 
were still in progress with Eussia, but that, late in the 
afternoon, Germany had made demands of England 
and China with respect to the recently-ceded territories, 
with which England, as he might say at once, would 
certainly be unable to comply. 

The next morning, before break of day, England 
found herself telegraphically disconnected with the 
Continent. 

About this precise hour, the Majestic, having her 
small companion some half a mile or more away on 
her starboard quarter, was butting her way about S. 
by W. through a rough Biscay sea. It was a cold and 
squally morning, still dark, though a chill hint of day 
now mingled bleakly with the East. The sea was hand- 
ling both ships rudely, and the Majestic’s ponderous 
lurching through some six or seven degrees brought the 
acrid green sea washing about the base of lier forward 
barbette, while from the bows of the Halcyon it went 
hissing aft in a continuous rain of spray. 

It was just after five bells in the morning watch, at 
an hour when tlie gloomy gray of the morning had 
lightened a little, that the lockout man of the 
Majestic reported a big ship astern steaming leisurely 
south about seven miles away. The rate of the 
Majestic was ten knots, that of the stranger about six ; 
but immediately after her coming into sight, a black 
cloud of redundant smoke revealed the stranger's will 
to improve her pace. 

That she had been lurking about with some object 
of search was clear. That she was now getting up 
steam seemed to indicate, if anything, that she had 
found what slie was looking for. 

In a few minutes it was made out that she was La 
Gloire, a Frencli battleship of about the weight and 
armature of the Majestic. 

La Gloire’^ cloud of smoke was premature — it oc- 


30 The Yellow Danger 

casioned a suspicion of her motives. The first thing 
which Sir Henry Stephenson did was to order the 
Halcyon by trumpet-call to steam at full speed S. AV. 
a distant of six miles. The Halcyon, at all events, had 
to be kept out of danger. 

Yet he could hardly have expressed his reason for 
giving this order. Was any one at war with any one ? 
He was ignorant of the fact, if so. 

He was not long in doubt. La Gloire, even while 
getting up steam, had pricked off her course three 
points to starboard. It seemed as if she was about to 
give chase to the Halcyo7i. 

What ! Are we in for a fight then. Captain ? ” 
said the Vice-Admiral with a smile of surprise, and 
a puckered brow. 

It almost looks like it, certainly,’’ replied Fleet- 
Captain Hardy. 

‘‘Well, come now, we shall see,” said the Vice- 
Admiral. 

By this time La Gloire had not only hoisted her 
colors but had extra colors on masts and stays. The 
Majestic wore the ordinary single ensign. 

Captain Hardy had ordered steam for full speed. 
The next moment the Majestic swung round to star- 
board about six points. She was still ahead of La 
Gloire. At her present course and speed she would 
interpose between the English gunboat and the French 
ship. 

For quite half an hour the two ships continued to 
approach each other slowly and obliquely, having 
started from a separating interval of about five miles. 
On this course the sea was more aft, and the rolling 
and sullen plunging of the ships less marked. 

On board the Majestic, meanwhile, all was bustling 
action. Decks were cleared, magazines were opened, 
ammunition and projectiles got out ; water-tight doors 
were closed. . The dawn lightened to a chill and drear 
twilight. 

The real object of La Gloire was to intercept and 
capture any despatch-boat from the Channel, which 
might attempt to take intelligence through the Straits. 


First Blood 


31 

The sending out of the battle-ship with such an object 
was, however, a breach of international law, and an 
act of treachery ; for no one had declared war against 
England, though declarations of hostilities were already 
in the bureaux of more than one of the ambassadors at 
London. 

That the despatch-boat should be convoyed, and by 
a first-class battle-ship, was unexpected. La Gloire 
found herself checkmated. There before her lay her 
prize ; but between her and it was the thunder and 
lightning of England. 

But, though checkmated, she showed no intention 
of being checked. She kept on her way with rising 
speed. The two ships, in malign silence, like two 
red-eyed planets rushing to jarring combat, drew 
nearer. When their speed had increased to thirteen 
knots, they were about two miles apart. Decks on 
both were cleared, collision-mats were ready, prepara- 
tions were made for rigging torpedo-nets in an emer- 
gency. Nearer, in awful silence, they drew, two giants 
with limbs oiled for battle ; and the bleak and raw sea- 
wind of the dawning made hoarse sounds above their 
funnels. 

But one of the ships was still in doubt whether there 
was to be fighting, and, if so, why. There was a brief 
consultation on board the Majestic, and then she 
signaled : 

Are we combatants ?” 

There was no reply. 

To this silence the Majestic sent aloft the answer : 

‘^Trafalgar.” 

And now the baleful silence recommenced. Both 
commanders had stationed themselves in their conning- 
towers. On either ship not a soul was to be made out 
by the glasses save the crews of the quick-firing guns 
on the hurricane decks, and of the machine-guns on 
the tops. By five minutes past seven the fleet-engineer 
of the Majestic announced that he had steam enough 
to drive the vessel at her utmost trial speed. 

The strategy of the French commander in not an- 
swering the Majestic’s question was soon apparent, for 


32 


The Yellow Danger 

Sir Henry Stephenson felt himself hound to wait for 
the first shot, being uncertain how matters stood on 
shore. And the first shot in modern naval warfare 
must often mean victory. 

The two vessels slowly converged, La Gloire on the 
other’s starboard side, steering S. by E. ; the Majestic 
on the other’s port bows, heading S. by W. Suddenly 
La Gloire sharply altered her course by several points 
to the eastward, and impetuously bore down upon the 
Majestic. 

AVell,” said Sir Henry Stephenson to himself, 
^^that is uncommonly like an act of hostility. Well, 
then, Mr. Frenchman ” 

Immediately the Majestic, too, pricked off eastward, 
her after-pair of 67-ton guns being kept trained on the 
enemy as she maneuvered. The ships were now so well 
within effective range that the Majestic’s thin smoke, 
blown into a wide hovering fog by the east wind, half 
concealed her movement from La Gloire. 

For a time it seemed as if the British ship were in 
retreat, and the French giving chase ; then suddenly 
both ships were hidden from each other. Sir Henry, 
taking advantage of his windward position, had thrown 
overboard some twenty casks of smoke-producing tow 
and naphtha and tar, which at once separated the two 
ships with a blackness of thick brown reek, mingled near 
the water with bickering tongues of fiame. The com- 
mander of La Gloire, fearing that in this fog of fume 
the Majestic might suddenly turn about and ram him, 
at once changed his course southwest, and was im- 
mediately the retreating ship. The English admiral 
had guessed his thought, and when the region of the 
smoke-making composition was passed, the beam of 
the Majestic was abreast of La Gloire’ s poop. 

It was the lieutenant in charge of the fore-barbette 
of the Majestic who first woke the thunder of this win- 
ter-morning tragedy. 

Simultaneously, with one bang of wrath that shook 
the Majestic herself from stem to stern, both the 67- 
tonners of this barbette went crashing into La Gloire’^ 
quarters. 


First Blood 


33 

At this moment the ships were not much more than 
half a mile apart. When the smoke cleared it was 
at once seen that the whole stern armament of La 
Gloire was in ruins, her after-barbette shattered, the 
two heavy guns unshipped. One of the shells had 
penetrated abaft her after-armored tube and there 
burst, killing fifty men, and rending into a chaos of 
debris all it met. From the poop of tlie French ship 
rose a wide hurry of white smoke. At the same time 
a steady bombardment of quick-firing guns was opened 
from both vessels. In three minutes all unarmored or 
unsheltered spots in each ship were cleared of every 
living thing. Twelve-pounders, six-pounders, three- 
pounders mingled in swift-cracking uproar, punctuated 
by the hmt growl of the Gardners and the more rasping 
detonation of the Nordenfeldts. All the air was war, 
and all the intervening sea a commotion of hissing 
foam. 

But now the machine-guns in the tops were silent, 
their protecting shields had been shot away, and their 
crews annihilated. One of La Gloire^s funnels was 
gone, and the other pierced, while three projectiles 
from her had burst their way through shields 'of six- 
inch nickel steel, and put three of the Majestic's, cen- 
tral battery guns out of actions, striking them fairly on 
the chase. Within three minutes the two ships had 
belched forth a flaming hail of some twenty-two thou- 
sand rounds of shot, riddling all except the most 
heavily armored parts of each other, tearing to shreds 
all light gun-screens, and turning unarmored ends and 
box-batteries into shambles. 

Already it seemed improbable that either ship, unless 
the other were at once destroyed, could come out of 
this anarcliy of thunder and live. 

The starboard side of the Majestic was still presented 
to the Port of La Gloire but La Gloire' s speed had been 
greatly reduced, owing to injuries to her funnels, and 
the Majestic had forged forward abreast, then some- 
what anead of the other. 

Vice-Admiral Stephenson was every moment await- 
ing the second crash of his after-barbette into the 


34 


The Yellow Danger 

Frencli ship’s beam, when La Gloire^s two fore-barbette 
guns sent out their voices simultaneously. 

One of the shots glanced against the center armor- 
belt of the Majestic at the water-line, leapt, struck her 
fore-armored tube, and went driving far forward into 
the sea, where it burst in a high water-lily of spouting 
foam. 

The other wrought terrible havoc. It struck the 
Majestic^ s central battery at the height of the deck, 
burst inside, blew away the chief part of the hurricane 
deck, and turned all the guns in that battery into a 
mere heap of twisted and crumpled metal. 

But as the British ship staggered at this blow, her 
blue- jackets sent up a cheer, for the next instant the 
after-barbette in their own ship was talking, too ; and 
a' few seconds afterwards it was seen that La Gloire's 
forecastle was on fire, that she had gone down by the 
bows, and that her screws, half out of the water, were 
furiously revolving in a broad mound of wheeling 
spume. 

Was she sinking, then ? The British Vice-Admiral 
expected now to see her strike her flag. But even as 
he looked, he was undeceived. 

Yonder, a hundred yards astern, somewhat to his 
port side, he saw a sight which might have made even 
the heart of a Nelson leap. It was a small object, look- 
ing like a cubical box ; and even as he glanced at it, it 
disappeared utterly beneath the waves. 

He knew this to be one of the ingenuities from the 
Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee. It was a sub- 
marine boat, and the object which he had seen for a 
moment was the top of her conning-tower as she rose 
for an observation of distances and directions. 

The submarine boat had been secretly lowered into 
the water from La Gloire's starboard side. Her motor 
was electric, supplied from storage batteries, and her 
speed, even at some depth, considerable. Vice-Admiral 
Stephenson knew that her aim was to pass under his 
torpedo-nets, carrying an electrically-fired torpedo, to 
be attached to his already half-ruined ship. 

At once he went circling at full speed to starboard, 


First Blood 


35 

crossing the bows of the now slowly-progressive La 
Gloire, one of whose fore-barbette guns was useless, 
and the other unready to fire. 

At the same time he had rapidly lowered from his 
port side a second-class torpedo boat which he then 
carried on deck. By means of hot water from the 
Majestic^ s boilers, she was already under steam, and 
with careful handling, in spite of the parent ship’s 
now headlong, wheeling flight, she touched the water 
in safety, and at once went fretting fussily through 
the billows, a mere cloud of hurrying spray, at a speed 
of fourteen knots. Like some buzzing bee with deadly 
sting, she drove straight upon La Gloire. 

The alarm on the French ship at this hasting ruin 
resembled panic. Disregarding the movements of the 
Majestic, her commander at once put his helm-a-port, 
and turning upon his small foe the comparatively 
uninjured armament of his starboard side, poured 
forth, in one continuous roll of artillery, a bombard- 
ment of some twelve thousand pounds per minute. 
La Gloire was now, however, well in the trough of the 
sea, which flowed in bulky swells from east to west ; 
the greater portion of her huge outburst of fire failed 
to take effect ; and still the puffing thing came near 
and yet nearer, overwhelmed, but steadfast, drowned, 
but headlong, tiny, but terrible. 

The climax of the fight was near. It had lasted but 
a few minutes : it had seemed like an eternity in 
hell. 

At about three hundred yards from La Gloire the 
little torpedo-boat launched a Whitehead. 

As the oiled and gleaming needle of steel slid swiftly 
into the water, it passed straight through the body of 
a great swell, and came instantly out on the other side, 
making directly for La Gloire^ s quarter ; but before it 
could reach her, the ship maneuvered slightly to star- 
board, and the projectile slipped hurriedly under her 
stern, and exploded harmlessly some distance away. 

But even as it did so, another torpedo came shooting 
through the waves from the little boat. 

At the same time the crew of the torpedo-boat were 


36 The Yellow Danger 

seen to be wildly leaping at random over her sides into 
the waves. Seen — but dimly seen — for the whole craft 
from stem to stern, as well as all that region of the 
water into which she was now plunging on her last 
voyage, was enveloped in one hissing white cloud of 
stinging vapor. Two of her men instantly sank 
scalded to death. A twelve-pounder, shot upwards, 
had burst into her boiler. 

It had not come from La Gloire. It had come from 
the unseen thing which was cruising darkl}^ beneath 
the sea in search of the Majestic. 

Immediately the submarine boat rose again, and the 
man in her conning-tower, looking a moment abroad, 
saw the Majestic — or rather he saw a vast mass of 
smoke which utterly concealed the Majestic and the 
direction of her bow. All he could note was that she 
was fearfully and wonderfully near to La Gloire ; that 
she was approaching La Gloire — rapidly, rapidly — with 
horrid impetuosity. 

He did not hesitate a moment, but, putting his fins 
into play, instantly sank, and made for a point at 
which he believed he would intercept the rushing 
ship. 

The mass of smoke which he had seen around the 
Majestic had been intentionally caused by her com- 
mander. The Vice-Admiral had ordered every gun 
which still worked to be discharged, whether they 
bore upon -the French ship or not, and enveloped in 
the mantle of ascending reek which poured from the 
hot weapons, he put his helm hard down, suddenly 
left the evolutionary curve of sixteen points through 
which he had been circling, and drove straight upon 
La Gloire. He was going to ram. 

At that great moment expectation stood in horror. 

Prepare to ram ! w'ent forth the command from 
the conning-tower, and every man on the Majestic fell 
flat to his face, as though at the sound of the trump 
of doom. And now, while the clock might tick, and 
tick again, the men on La Gloire became aware of 
what was coming. Up out of her envelope of vapor 
suddenly loomed the Majestic upon them, near and 


First Blood 


37 

huge, like a monster rising from the deep. Just then 
the remaining fore-barbette gun of La Gloire was be- 
ing discharged, and the ships being nearly bow to bow, 
the shell went forth with disastrous havoc, shattering 
the thickly armored fore-barbette of the Majestic, bat- 
tering the conning-tower, destroying the funnels, and 
shocking the Vice-Admiral into a state of insensibility. 

But even as it did so, the crash came. The ram of 
the Majestic touched La Gloire on her starboard bow, 
glanced a little, then with a horrid z-z-zip-p” z-z- 
zip-p,’* then with a bursting and rending uproar like 
the cracking asunder of an arsenal, went tearing and 
smashing a shapeless hole 20 feet in length along her 
beam. The sea poured into the doomed ship ; and at 
once she lurched bow-ward to starboard. 

But the ram of the Majestic was not yet clear of La 
Gloire, when the most stupendous hubbub of the whole 
battle, drowning every other sound, rent the heavens. 
It was a double detonation, yet the two reports followed 
so closely one upon tlie other, that they seemed almost 
like one. 

They were the sounds of two torpedoes. 

The 28,000 tons of the two great ships half-leapt 
from the water, and started apart, shivering to their 
keels ; and two immense pillars of white cloud, which 
soon were one, rose high, shutting them from each 
other. 

One of these torpedoes had been affixed by the crew 
of the submarine boat beneath the bow of La Gloire, 
which they had mistaken for the Majestic ; the other 
was the second of the two which had been despatched 
from the Majestic* s torpedo-boat before she had sunk. 
It had caught on to the keel of La Gloire aft, and its 
explosion had been delayed, perhaps half a minute, till 
now. 

When the smoke cleared a little, the commander of 
La Gloire was seen, with blood-soaked clothes, and 
haggard face, and eyes staring with horror, standing 
on the wreck of his after-barbette, frantically hauling 
down his colors. He sent forth to the wreck which 
he had made of the Majestic this cry of terror — 


38 The Yellow Danger 

Au nom de Dieul — we are sinking ! /or God's 
sake. . 

The captain of the Alajestic at once lowered his only 
boat which was capable of floating, through half 
of her port-side, too, was smashed away. The whole 
crew of the British vessel had hurried to deck, ready, 
even as they cheered in victory, to aid in the work of 
rescue. 

But as the boat pushed ofl, men were seen leaping 
hurriedly from La Gloire, in a vain attempt to escape 
her suction as she went down. She gave them little 
time. The bursting of the two torpedoes fore and 
aft had simply turned her into a skeleton of discon- 
nected ruin. She lurched a little aft — up went her bows 
like two hands laid together in prayer — then her 
whole length settled evenly lower ; she lurched aft 
again, obliquely, clumsily ; then, as if with sudden re- 
solve, she skipped forward, dived her nose briskly into 
the sea, and disappeared. 

Three of her crew of six hundred were saved. 

Meantime, the captain of the Majestic was signaling 
to the Halcyon, waiting, eager for fight, five miles 
away : 

‘MVe are sinking — make haste. 

The great ship was settling slowly down by the 
bows ; for the torpedo which had burst beneath the 
bows of La Gloire had wrought great havoc upon the 
other’s forward bottom also ; nor could the pumps pro- 
duce much impression upon the inrushing waters. 

The Halcyon succeeded in taking ofi the hundred 
and fifty-two that were left of her crew, taking also 
on board the crew of the French submarine boat, who 
had escaped injury. They Jiardly stopped to watch the 
Majestic settle slowly down, before the gunboat’s bows 
were once more turned, to bear her momentous message, 
toward the Straits. 

But it Dr. Yen How had been there to see that 
battle of the giants, and its result, the corners of his 
eyes would have wrinkled up into a very web of 
tickled merriment. 


CHAPTER V 

HOW EN^GLAND TOOK THE NEWS 

On the morning of the duel between La Gloire and 
the Majestic it was rumored at an early hour in the 
neighborhood of Fleet Street that China had dismissed 
Sir Robert Hart from the Controllership of the Im- 
perial Maritime Customs, and that a Russian was 
about to be appointed in his stead. 

The announcement appeared in the morning papers, 
and its almost immediate consequence was a rise of 
threepence per quartern in the price of bread. 

But though there were few who were not by this time 
in a state of excited expectancy, things on their out- 
side wore much their usual appearance. In London 
the commonplace ^bus and cab went about the streets, 
and the occasional bicycle, with swift and silent feet, 
maneuvered among them. Perhaps from Holborn and 
the Strand to the City the ^buses were fuller than 
ordinary, perhaps the cabs moved at a slight increase 
of pace. The pavements were rather crowded, as much 
perhaps, as on a Christmas Eve night, not nearly so 
much as on a Lord Mayor’s Day. In back streets the 
coalmen cried Coal,” and their faces were black with 
the grime of the ordinary workaday of life. 

Yonder, the sun wore his usual broad-faced benig- 
nity. He seemed to have no suspicion that on this par- 
ticular morning his old earth was in her death-throes, 
and a quite new earth in travail to be born. 

It was a bright and sunshiny forenoon, the 16th of 
March 1899 — eighteen days and nine months before the 
dawn of the twentieth century. 

The Evening News it was which, in a premature 
eleven o’clock fourth edition, applied the match to 
39 


40 The Yellow Danger 

the latent mind of excitement which smoldered in the 
minds of the people. It declared in a little thunder- 
bolt of breathless news, five lines of pica” type, tliat 
the Stock Exchange had been suddenly closed, and 
that it was rumored that the Government was ap- 
pointing private brokers for the transaction of only 
such business as might be essential. 

A step so decisive, as every one saw, could only have 
for its object the prevention of a financial panic which 
might be disastrous. And for this prevention there 
must be a cause not as yet generally known. 

Yet such a step should have been expected ; for 
hardly any, except the peace-at-any-price party, any 
longer hoped that war could be averted — though with 
whom the war was to be, against what odds, it was not 
so easy to decide. At any rate, no one could suppose 
that the cessions of territory by China to. the three 
Powers were spontaneous ; it was shrewdly suspected 
that they were the result of a secret understanding ar- 
rived at between them and China at the time when the 
three had combined to save^ China from Japan, after 
the Chino- Japanese war. It had, therefore, the look 
of a conspiracy to oust England from her share in an 
empire four-fifths, of whose commerce was being car- 
ried by British ships ; and from end to end of the 
land the idea that England should submit to such a 
conspiracy was scouted with indignation. 

The severance of telegraphic and telephonic com- 
munication, too, between the Continent and England 
looked like an act of war, whoever was responsible for 
it. It was reported, and then denied, that three 
army-corps of 120,000 men were being mobilized to- 
ward Brest. It was known that the War Office, the 
Admiralty, and the Foreign Office were in intensely 
active inter-communication ; that there were frequent 
and hurried meetings of the Cabinet. But still, with 
that silence which precedes the storm, with that sub- 
dued excitement which a trifle will cause to burst into 
passion, England waited, still hoping against hope to 
be allowed to go on her way in peace. 

The public were in blissful ignorance of the fact that 


How England Took the News 41 

the Majestic and La Gloire had already been lying four 
or five hours at the bottom of the Atlantic. 

Then came the announcement of the Evening Neivs, 
and the pent-up emotion broke suddenly out. In the 
City, even before this, the streets had become a mere 
sea, with currents and eddies, of thronging heads. 
Here the facts of the case were sooner known ; when 
the rumor spread westward, London was awake. All 
pretense at traffic quickly ceased. 

The general tendency and main current of this wel- 
tering human ocean was westward in that part of it 
which was east of Charing Cross, and eastward in that 
part of it which was west of Charing Cross. The 
House of Commons, as in all supreme moments of stress 
and danger, had become the cynosure and the magnet 
of the nation. Thither the throng pressed. 

What was it all about ? Ho one was certain. Was 
there war — at last ? — in very truth ? And with whom ? 
Ho one knew. 

Tor twenty-six years Europe has been practically at 
peace. The Grgeco-Turkish war, the Spanish- Ameri- 
can were not wars — they were the bickering of naughty 
children. The Franco-German had been grim enough, 
but it had long since got to be recognized that the 
next, when it actually came — at last — would hardly 
resemble it ; for the French and German nations had 
fought, and each still existed an integral nation in spite 
of the squabble ; but the struggle that was looked for- 
ward to when Europe, in the fulness of time, next 
brought forth her monstrous offspring of war, would 
as men knew, be stupendous, world-wide, and final ; 
the combatants would consist of mankind ; the whole 
future of the world would be determined by it ; and 
in the greatness of that day, war, the destroyer, would 
itself be destroyed. 

This was the logical outcome of the conditions under 
which Europe, groaning under her weight of armor, 
waiting, watching, eager to end her foul disease of 
hatred, had for many years been living. 

And now — at last — she was in travail — pang on pang, 
and slariek on shriek 3 and her birth-hour was at hand. 


42 


The Yellow Danger 

But in the London streets the crowd was worthy of 
the occasion — a crowd without violence, perfectly self- 
controlled — the meeting of a nation. There was a poor 
old Chinaman with a sore and swollen foot, on the heel 
of which he used to limp, begging, about the City and 
Holborn. By some chance he became involved in the 
crowd opposite the Ycav Law Courts, where it was very 
thick ; and he was soon at a loss what to do with his 
big, bandaged foot without boot. At that moment the 
name of China stank. But the old Canton beggar was 
no sooner seen to be in difficulties than the press opened 
before him ; he hobbled forward ; a murmur spread 
round him — half jeer, half cheer — and a rain of five or 
six pennies made him blessed. He hobbled through 
a lane which instantly closed behind him, thanking the 
gods for war. 

The bells of St. Clement Danes burst out, telling 
the notes of a slow hymn-tune. 

Eastward, in a window of the Daily News, there was 
a big sheet of paper, written over in large, blue-pencil 
letters with the words : ^‘War with Russia.” 

AVestward, in the fa9ade of the National Liberal 
Club, there was a square, white space exhibited to the 
public inscribed with the words in charcoal : ‘‘ AVar 
with France and Germany.” 

sY/^ said a work-girl to her lover, ^Hhere’s a 
blooming Frenchman a-looking at the placard. CanT 
you tell by the squint of him ! ” 

Oh, don’t show him to me, or Ifil go straight for 
him,” said Bill ; ^^a Frenchman mykes me sick.” 

But the girTs remark was passed on; eyes were 
directed toward monsieur. He turned white, finding 
himself at the mercy of the crowd. But no harm was 
done to him ; he was only quietly but persistently 
hustled, till he reached a comparatively empty by- 
street, dripping with the sweats of fear. 

. The exhibition of gratuitous notices in windows and 
at doors was the order of the day. Old habits of Stoic 
silence seemed for the moment to have disappeared — 
for the moment was ecstatic. Europe, it was felt, had 
drifted — drifted from the old moorings — into what new 


How England Took the News 43 

seas and latitudes ? At Gatti’s place in the Strand was 
written up in huge letters: ‘‘Italy to the Eescue ! 
In the shop window of some foreign faddist in Soho 
appeared these words : “ Eussia is the Natural Ally of 
England ; ” and in Holborn, at the First Avenue Hotel, 
which was richly decorated with Britisli and American 
flags, these words : “ One Blood, One Eace, One 

Speech.” 

A little street arab in half an hour attained to sudden 
wealth ; he was a newspaper boy, and had in his hand 
a bundle of three Stars. In a moment of inspiration, 
Harry Tibbies, Jammed against one of the lions in 
Trafalgar Square, nimbly flung and twisted himself on 
to the pedestal, and held aloft his Stars. Thousands 
of eyes turned upon him. He took from his pocket a 
match, and deliberately applied the flame to the papers. 
Pointing to the smoke and flame, he cried in his shrill- 
est Cockney : 

“ ThaPs the French. So much for them I ” 

Thereupon he turned and pointed upward to the 
statue of Nelson. A shout of cheers at once filled the 
square, while the urchin was bombarded with a hail of 
pennies, sixpences, shillings, till he could no longer 
gather them up. When he had been lifted down, and 
coddled by the laughing crowd, an old gentleman got 
from him his address, and promised to remember him 
“ if ” . . . but at “ if ” he stopped. 

Down by St. Stephen's some cheers were making 
themselves heard. It was three o’clock — a Thursday. 
The members were arriving in crawling carriages, one 
by one. 

Mr. T. P. O’Connor stood up, leaning forward in 
his cab, bowing on each side, like Eoyalty. One man 
shouted : “ Strike hard, Tay Pay ! ” And another : 
“ Don’t spare them ! ” Mr. O’Connor drove out his 
large fist, and shook it in fearful menace at the sun. 

The round orb of Mr. Chamberlain’s eyeglass was 
all that could be distinctly made out of him, but behind 
it, his face seemed Ehadamanthine in its sternness, 
ashen in its pallor. A profound silence fell upon the 
people as he passed. 


44 


The Yellow Danger 

Within the House itself the benches were soon 
crowded, all but the Treasury and front Opposition 
benches. Prayers were read. So far there was no sign 
of impatience or emotion. There were Questions,” 
though there was nobody to answer them ; there was 
also a Light Eailway Bill for somewhere to be reported, 
and the House calmly proceeded to the business in hand. 

It was a place of stately traditions ; the exhibition of 
emotion had always been foreign to it. Even when the 
elementary passions of humanity broke through, and 
swept like whirlwinds within its walls, it had known 
how to comport itself with a dignity impossible .to the 
other senates of the world. 

No one, observing its outward aspect during that 
half hour, could have dreamed that the nation it had 
led so long from greatness to greatness stood on the 
very brink of swift and final ruin. 

The Speaker put the question whether the Eailway 
Bill should he reported. Only two Labor members 
rose to oppose it. The Speaker said presently : 

I think the Ayes have it.” 

The thing was done. All eyes cast furtive glances 
in the direction of the spot behind the Speaker's chair. 
At that moment the form of Mr. Balfour was seen ad- 
vancing slowly toward the Ministerial Bench. 

Behind him, in a strange topsy-turveydom of party, 
came Sir William Harcourt talking to Mr. Chamber- 
lain, and Mr. Asquith whispering to Mr. Curzon. 
Others followed. Then it was seen with a thrill, born 
of the certainty now of calamity, that the Prince of 
Wales had Just quietly walked into the Peers^ Gallery, 
immediately followed by Lords Salisbury, Eosebery, 
and the Duke of Devonshire. Peering through the 
gratings of the Ladies' Gallery were Mrs. Gladstone, 
the Duchess of York, and others, while the Italian and 
American ambassadors sat in the places reserved for 
diplomats. 

Below, in the body of the Chamber, was not a sound, 
except a faint scratching of the pen of the Clerk to tlie 
House. Yonder, in the Press Gallery, the alert press- 
jnen held pencil or pen ready, eager to record forever 


How England Took the News 45 

every word of the momentous utterance which was 
coming. 

In the spirit of the House was deep commotion ; on 
the surface calm. 

Mr. Balfour rose to speak. 

His face bore traces of some sort of suffering, like 
that of a man who has passed through the travail of a 
great ordeal. This was partly due to a want of sleep, 
occasioned by the stress of the last few days. Under 
his eyes were the semicircles of fatigue. But, apart 
from this, the face which he turned absently round 
the House before he spoke was changed : the dilettante 
politician, the charming literary amateur, the ennuye 
lounger — these familiar phases of his personality were 
no longer in evidence. Care sat on his faded cheek, a 
gravity heavy as the world. 

He made a half-turn toward the Speaker, and as he 
said ‘‘Sir,""^ and paused, his neck stiffened with dignity. 

Sir,^^ he repeated, I need make no apology at the 
present time for interrupting the ordinary routine of 
the business of this House. Some adumbration of what 
I have to say must have already entered the mind of 
every one present. And yet, perhaps, not even the 
most far-seeing and the most prophetic of us may have 
been able to forecast the gravity of the announcement 
which it is now my duty to make to this House and to 
the people of Britain. 

The recent course of affairs in China is known to 
all of us, and to all the world. It has not been sug- 
gested, even by our enemies, that our policy in that 
country, either originally or recently, was an aggressive 
one. The enterprise of our citizens, indeed, in the 
ordinary course of commerce, secured for them the 
greater part of the foreign trade of the land ; but with 
that strong and large bounty of our race, which re- 
sembles nothing so much as the free air of heaven and 
the breadths of the ocean which it inhabits, we have 
left it open to every man on the face of the earth to 
go and do likewise, by engaging in free competition 
with ourselves. Later on we secured the appointment 
of an Englishman to the Controller ship of the Imperial 


46 The Yellow Danger 

Maritime Customs in China ; in view of the fact that 
our trade with China amounted to a sum of ten millions 
sterling annually, this was a step dictated by ordinary 
caution. But what has been the consequence to other 
nations ? This : that our nominee has impartially 
distributed all subordinate posts in his gift to French, 
German, Eussian, and Englishman alike, regardless of 
nationality, regardful only of merit. Such has been 
our action in the past. With regard to recent events, 
we know, and our enemies know, that the Government 
of this country has, in its holy passion for the main- 
tenance of the peace of the world, submitted to affronts, 
to wrongs, to insults even, which would, weeks ago, 
have driven any of the less restrained Ministries of 
continental empires into a declaration of war. 

Even on the points where undoubtedly many an 
Englishman would have considered that concession was 
derogatory to honor, we made concessions. We asked 
only of Germany that Tientsin should be a free port ; 
of France, that Yun-nan should be open to British 
enterprise ; of Russia, that the valley of the Yangtse 
river should remain neutral country. Without threats, 
with no exhibition of heat, we claimed these rights. 

“ The reply of France, of Germany, and of Russia 
has been a declaration of hostilities. 

Two hours ago their respective Ambassadors placed 
a notice of war in the hands of the Government.” 

The House received this announcement with a per- 
fect stillness, in which horror contended with indigna- 
tion. Mr. Balfour continued : 

It is impossible to doubt that this vast combina- 
tion of power is the result of a wilful and wicked con- 
spiracy, aimed primarily at the British Empire, but 
aimed, in the end, against the progress and happiness 
of the human race. It comes upon us, like a bolt from 
unclouded skies, at an hour when the democracies of 
the world, recovering from centuries of mutual blood- 
shed, begin to catch glimpses of the dawn of a better day, 
and look forward to the yet fairer fruits of the peace 
which they enjoy. Sir, the declaration of this war is 
a blasphemy against mankind, and can proceed only 


How England Took the News 47 

from those mysterious powers of evil which seem ever 
to stand ready to mar the blessedness of the earth. 
Away now, for many a day, with the fair aspects of our 
modern life, the quietude of homes, and the untroubled 
flow of things. With one thought, at least, every 
Englishman may console himself, as he goes forth to 
hear his part in this stupendous struggle : ^ Britain is 
not to blame.’ Not to blame — and yet not all-unpre- 
pared, I think, sir, to comport herself with high valor, 
as of old, in this the greatest crisis of her august his- 
tory. Nor is it probable that there lives a single Eng- 
lishman, who, even in this hour of trial, can doubt 
that that same Providence which has led our race from 
small beginnings to the empire of half the earth, will, 
in its dark purposes, conduct it yet further upon its 
destiny of triumph and glory.” 

Mr. Balfour sat down in the midst of a cheer whicli 
burst from every member of the House — English, 
Scotch, Irish, and Welsh — in a very tempest of loyal 
passion. The assembly leapt to its feet, and volley on 
volley of enthusiasm filled the chamber with sound. 
Exultation, for the moment, took the place of dignity ; 
and there ensued an exaggeration of one of those whirl- 
wind scenes” which have occurred at intervals. 
Members bounded across the breadth of the House ; in 
the midst of the tumult, Mr. Burns was seen at the 
Treasury Bench, shaking the hand of Mr. Chamber- 
lain ; two Irish members were sobbing in a kind of 
hysteria to each other ; and Mr. Labouchere, forget- 
ting, was shouting to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who 
happened to catch his eye : Eussia must be conquered 
first, and then France — Eussia first ! ” 

During this row and chaos. Sir William Har court 
rose, seeming to wish to speak. A Labor member, 
who had been talking at the Speaker’s chair, rushed 
away. Order ! Order!” cried the Speaker, rising. 
Almost instantly the House resumed its quiet, and sat 
once more stern and impressive. In five minutes it 
had spent its exuberance. Now it was the Parliament 
of Britain again. 

It was noticed now, with wonder, that Sir William 


48 The Yellow Danger 

was at the Treasury Bench instead of on the Opposi- 
tion side. Mr. Balfour -near him, was leaning his head 
on his hands, in a pose of absolute weariness. Sir 
William said : 

am asked, sir, to say a few words by the Leader 
of the House. It was his intention to add a few brief 
words to what he has already said ; but the mental 
strain put upon him during the last few days has left 
him in a state of practical collapse. The right hon. 
gentleman has asked me to supply his place. If it 
should seem strange to any honorable member that the 
Leader of the Opposition should be asked to supply 
the place of the Leader of the House, I can only reply 
that the Opposition now consists of the countries of 
Russia, France, and Germany ; in this country, cer- 
tainly, there is no longer an Opposition. (Loud cheers.) 
I believe it to be a fact, sir, that if the rulers of the 
Continental empires in question had had any kind of 
conception of the real temper of the nation which they 
have wantonly and cruelly attacked, they would have 
paused — they would have hesitated. It is a country 
hard to conquer, sir — a race hard to quell ; at least, it 
will be a united race and country. Liberal and Radical 
and Tory shall henceforth lose their titles in the com- 
mon appellation of {Soldier ; there shall be no more 
Orangeman, and no more Parnellite ; these shall merge 
their names in the common name of Patriot. The 
moment is great ; but England is great, too, and equal 
to the moment. (Prolonged cheering.) I have risen 
to announce, sir, that the chiefs of the former Opposi- 
tion have this hour come from a meeting in Downing 
Street, which we were requested to attend by the 
Leader of the House with a view to the formation, 
between us, of a Permanent Committee of Public 
Safety. I wish also to state that an immediate reduc- 
tion of the interest on Consols and Government Stock 
from two and three-quarters to one and a half per 
cent, is proposed ; that a tax on non-professional in- 
comes exceeding £1,000, considerably in excess of the 
present rate, has been agreed upon ; and that the 
House will be asked to read three times and report 


How England Took the News 49 

to-day — :for it is possible that hostilities have already 
commenced — a Bill granting to the Government a sum 
of seventy-five million pounds for war expenses.” 

After this, with perfectly business-like calm and grasp 
of details, the House proceeded to the matter in hand, 
getting through a mass of work with a celerity which 
astonished itself. Near six it rose. 

An hour previously the Sergeant-at-Arms, attended 
by a mass of city functionaries, had declared war 
against the three countries from the steps of the Eoyal 
Exchange. 

Meanwhile, the news had gone like wild-fire through 
the country ; and everywhere it met with the same in- 
dignation, scorn, and hard-headed pride. It was not, 
as Sir William Harcourt had shrewdly said, a partic- 
ularly easy task which the nations of Europe had 
undertaken. 

England might break ; but it was already clear that 
she was not fashioned of the kind of steel which could 
be made to bend. 

4 


CHAPTER VI. 


HARDY. 

Invasion was the word which more frequently 
than any other rose to the lips of Englishmen. 

The muster of French, Russian, and German ships 
in the Northern Seas was eagerly criticised. It was 
found that their weight of metal was overpowering ly 
great compared with the small muster of the Channel 
Squadron. Away out in the China Seas the British 
fleet had been strengthened ; it was cruising in force 
in the Mediterranean ; it was at the Cape, at Australia, 
at North America, at the West Indies, in the Paciflc ; 
it was not in the English Channel. 

Under these conditions the warlike activity in Brit- 
ain itself went on with intensity. Even before the 
declarations of war the Adjutant-General had issued 
telegraphic orders all over the country for the calling 
out of the first-class army reserve, and the mobilization 
of the militia and volunteers. With wondrous celerity 
commercial England turned herself into, military Eng- 
land. What conscription did for foreign countries, 
that the manly mood of the race did for us. The 
women of England, especially, exhibited a spirit as 
warlike as the peril of their country was immense ; 
and banishing fears and tears, they put on the sternly- 
proud brows of those heroic Roman matrons, who 
laughed when their sons were borne home dead with 
wounds in front. Go along, boy, and give it ^em 
’ot this time ! ” said a Clerkenwell mother, handing 
his musket to her son. And don’t be a-sparing o’ 
thot sword o’ thoine, Jock,” was the admonition of a 
Lancashire wife as her husband, in premature haste, 
set out, like many another, to flock to the regimental 
50 


Hardy 51 

center, before receiving the intimation that his pres- 
ence was requisitioned. '‘And you’ll give them a 
good taste of what old Devon men are like, won’t you, 
Steve ? ” was the exhortation of a J3ideford lass. This 
was the mood — heroic, nothing less. Night and day 
the regimental districts and all military centers were 
hard at work, calling rolls, drafting troops to their 
regiments, and making all necessary preparations. A 
sound of trumpets re-echoed through the land. 

On the night of the announcement in the House of 
Commons, at about ten o’clock, — suddenly, on the east 
balcony of Buckingham Palace, the Queen appeared. 

It had been supposed that she was still at Windsor, 
and by what contrivance she came here without attract- 
ing attention was unknown ; to the crowds, thirsting, 
as they were, for some outward symbol of the might of 
England to which they could vent their intolerable 
emotions of love and loyalty, she appeared like a god- 
send dropped from Heaven. 

One involuntary far-reaching shout of joy, spreading 
by contagion far up Piccadilly, far along Pall Mall, and 
re-echoed in thousandfold acclamations, even by those 
who could not see her, burst instantly forth. A strong 
lime-light or electric light arrangement had been con- 
trived, which focussed a powerful beam of white con- 
centrated luminosity around her, and shot in shimmer- 
ing rays far out and down through the night. Grouped 
around her was a party of the Royal family. On the 
right, the Prince of Wales ; on her left. Lord Salis- 
bury. In her hand she held aloft an object, the sig- 
nificance of which the crowd for a moment failed to 
grasp. When it did, the enthusiasm intensified be- 
yond all bounds. It was one of the faded and ragged 
old flags, brought that afternoon from St. Paul’s, 
which had served as ensigns in Wellington’s Peninsu- 
lar campaign. 

A scene similarly striking was being witnessed on the 
esplanade at Southsea at the same hour, where some 
seven thousand blue-jackets, and the marines from 
Gosport, were on parade, and were being reviewed by 
the Princess May. Hither she had hurried after wit- 


5^ The Yellow Danger 

nessing the scene in the House, and by the side of 
her sailor-husband, and Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, 
rode from end to end of the improvised ranks. Prince 
George addressed the men with a message of confidence 
from the Queen, and hinted at tlie awful odds which 
they would probably soon be called upon to face. He 
and every one was conscious that he was talking to 
doomed men. 

The Princess dismounted. She had a basket, which 
she opened, and from it took a strip of blue ribbon. 
A high fiush of ardor mantled her face as she attached 
it to the bosom of a staff-captain near her. A touch 
of pathos was added to the ceremony through which 
she now deftly went by the fact that she wore a loose 
velvet mantle, the reason for which could not be con- 
cealed. To every officer, from fleet-captain and com- 
modore to sub-lieutenant and cadet, she attached the 
little symbol of affection. So solemn was the rite that 
even the crowd was silent. It was her salute to the 
dying. 

But even during the progress of this scene, one of 
a number of picket-boats which had been sent out from 
Portsmouth during the day was steaming into the har- 
bor, fussy with news. 

- She and two companions, smart little steam-pinnaces 
which flitted through water like fish, had, earlier in the 
day, spied a fleet of cuirasses, canonnieres, croiseurs, 
and Mtiments de transport about S. by E. from Hew- 
liaven, fifty miles out. They were mostly French, but 
there were some German also. 

The three boats, at intervals of a few minutes, came 
panting into Portsmouth harbor, like fluttered birds. 
Each contained five men, and the fifteen, almost at the 
same time, stood grouped round the Commander-in- 
Chief on the Hard. 

Could you make out what ships they were ?” he 
asked. 

‘MVe were rather too far off for that, sir,""^ answered 
a sub, near him. 

There was silence for half a minute. 

It was broken by a voice, which said : 


Harclv 


53 

The Amiral Baiidin is among them, sir, the Iloclie, 
tlie Massina, the Kaiser and the Deiitsohlancl,'*' 

Sir Michael Culme-Seymour turned ; lie looked at 
the speaker ; his eyebrows lifted a little. He did not 
know him. 

Then, after a minute^s deliberation, the Admiral said : 

How many ships all told 

There are about seventeen battleships, sir,'’^ an- 
swered a middy eagerly, about twenty to twenty-three 
cruisers, and a large fleet of liners — Messageries Mari- 
times and Korddeutscher Lloyd — with an indefinite 
number of gun and torpedo boats, tenders and compo- 
site small craft. They are making for Bognor, Little- 
hampton, or perhaps Worthing in a quadruple line of 
a good twenty or thirty cables’ interval.” 

There can hardly be seventeen battleships,” said 
the Admiral musingl3^ Do you confirm that ? ” 

He turned suddenly to the unknown person who had 
addressed him before — a mere stripling with a face 
highly flushed with excitement. 

“AYell — not quite, sir,” the young man replied ; ‘^1 
decided that there were fourteen battleships, twenty- 
four cruisers, thirty-eight troopships and liners, and a 
flotilla of 104 small fry.” 

‘‘You seem pretty certain of your figures?” the 
Admiral said, with a smile. 

“ Middlingly certain, sir.” 

“ May I ask — who are you ? ” 

“ My name is John Hardy, sir.” 

“ And your ship ? ” 

“The Poiverful, sir.” 

“ Then, what on earth are you doing here ? ” 

(The Powerful was away out in the Yellow Sea, 
whither she had been commissioned since the previous 
year.) 

“ Looking about, sir,” replied the young man, drop- 
ping his light-blue eyes. 

“ But why are you not in China ?” 

“ I fell ill just as my ship was going to sail, sir, and 
as he said it, he gave one of those peculiar half-secret 
coughs, so indicative of the consumptive chest. 


54 


The Yellow Danger 

see. AYell — but how came you to be in the 
Jupiter^ s picket-boat ? 

I was on the Jupiter as a middy before joining the 
Pou'erfuly sir. Captain MacLeod knows me, and has 
been kindly pleased to notice me. I am a bird without 
a roost. I came down from London, hoping for some 
of the trouble down here. Captain MacLeod allowed 
me to take 

Ah, that explains it, then. Well, he seems to have 
done well.’^ 

The Commander-in-Chief bestowed upon him a smile 
of passing approval, and turned away. In a moment 
he had forgotten the young seaman ; but when, a little 
later, he was reading a telegram from the chief coast- 
guardsman at Worthing, giving the sighted ships of 
the enemy, number for number as Hardy had given 
them, then he thought once more of John Hardy. 

Extraordinary genius for facts, he murmured. 

The Admiral knew that the picket-boats must, in 
order to avoid being blown out of the water, have re- 
connoitered the advancing fleet at such a distance as to 
be themselves invisible, or nearly so, to the enemy. 
There could be no doubt that John Hardy’s long- 
lashed, azure-blue eyes possessed the faculty of see- 
ing. 

It often happened that people who came into contact 
with this young sailor thought of him a second time at 
unexpected moments, as the Admiral now did. 

In a previous chapter we said that Dr. Yen How, 
sitting in a London ’bus on a certain night, was ^‘per- 
haps ” the most important person in the world. We 
should have stated the fact Avith quite absolute decis- 
ion, if it were not that Ave Avere thinking of this par- 
ticular sub-lieutenant, John Hardy. 

They tAvo — the little Chinese doctor, and this con- 
sumptive English lad — held in their hands the desti- 
nies of the world. 

Each had his own idea of the shape Avhich the fu- 
ture of the human race should take ; each Avas deter- 
mined that it should take the shape which he chose, 
and, no other ; and each was immensely strong. 


Hardy 55 

It was fated that these two should meet — soon — and 
more than once. 

It was now six o’clock, and the blue-jackets had al- 
ready passed in a swarm of hurrying boats to their re- 
spective ships. As the telegrams arrived from the 
coatsguardsmen on' the southeast coast they were 
transmitted by semaphore to the fleet. The Mag- 
nificent, under Bear- Admiral John Fellowes, was the 
flagship of the second-in-command of the Channel 
Squadron, and now, in the absence of the Majestic, 
became the flagship of the fleet. 

At the Horse Guards, meanwhile. Lord AYolseley 
was receiving and sending message after message, both 
telephonic and telegraphic, relating to the despatch of 
troops from Aldershot, Victoria, London Bridge, and 
Clapham Junction to the South. Every ten minutes a 
Brighton and South Coast train, packed with over a 
thousand regulars and volunteers carrying a day’s 
cooked rations, dashed forth from each of these 
stations. Away in hasty flight swept the long strings 
of bristling carriages, the throttle-valves shrieking the 
dragon-cry of defiance and challenge which England 
sent out in answer to her foes. 

By seven o’clock fifteen thousand men were massed 
upon Brighton, and an unaccustomed rattle of some 
ninety limbers sent thrills of very unusual dismay 
through the placid bourgeoisie of London-by-the-Sea. 
War, so long a word and a myth, had suddenly become 
a thing, real enough, near enough. Long files of 
private carriages, taking away mostly women and chil- 
dren, wended northward upon the Brighton road, while 
a crowd filled the steep street leading to the station, 
to watch the ever-new batch of arrivals which debarked 
at all the platforms, up and down alike, and at sidings, 
the empties being returned along the up and down 
lines according to convenience. By eight o’clock thirty 
thousand troops with one hundred and ten guns, under 
Sir Evelyn Wood, were concentrated, and waiting for 
the enemy ; and all through the night the number was 
being rapidly increased. 

But they waited in vain. 


56 


The Yellow Danger 


England had been several times invaded by foreign- 
ers. The last occasion was in the year 106G, and that 
occasion Providence designed to be the last forever. 
This land had since then nursed a race as superb and 
firm as the foot with which she spurned the breakers 
raving round her inviolate shores. 

At one bell in the second dog-watch the signal was 
given from the flag-ship ; the Channel Squadron, in a 
double line ahead, at intervals of six cables, some under 
forced draught, was to steam down Spithead for the 
Channel, the Ma^iificent, like the bell-wether, of a 
flock, leading one line, the Prince George the other. 

At that moment John Hardy climbed from the look- 
out pinnace which he had been permitted to command, 
on to the deck of the Jupiter, 

His heart misgave him, he shrank within himself, he 
slunk guiltily. He knew that he had only to be 
noticed to be turned peremptorily away. He was 
merely a visitor, a guest — a privileged one, it is true — 
but an outsider. That he should dream of taking part 
in the coming fight was preposterous, the more so as 
every man knew beforehand that all were going to 
certain death. And he had no shadow of status in any 
ship present. 

But he wanted desperately to see the row, and his 
mind was one of those dominant ones not very subject 
to considerations of routine. 

Once, when a ‘^chief-captain” of cadets on the 
Britannia, with no further temptation to dissolute- 
ness than his weekly two-an’’ “ ’ ' 



money, he had been reported 


“ unsatisfactory conduct ” ; another such report, and 
he would have bidden farewell to the British Navy for- 
ever. It was that same gipsy attitude of mind, that 
sort of devil-may-care lawlessness characteristic of 
him, which was working in him now, as he stood 
sulkily there, abaft the after-funnel. He felt like 
being shut out and banished — and he wanted to see the 
row. He thought of skedaddling and hiding till the 
sliip was well out from land. 


lit there was a suspicion of meanness in this con- 


Hardy 57 

trivance, and even while he hesitated, Captain Angus 
MacLeod sighted him. 

The captain had been an intimate friend of Hardy’s 
father, and was an executor of the very large real and 
personal fortune of which the boy was the heir. Hardy 
now, at the age of nearly nineteen, was an orphan. 
The family was Hampshire. The country-house in 
which he had passed his earlier boyhood lies fifteen 
miles south of Andover. 

The captain beckoned. Hardy ran and stood before 
him on the hurricane-deck with downcast eyes, and 
cheeks blushing like a girl’s. By nature he was ex- 
tremely bashful. 

‘‘You here ? ” said the captain, with a deep serious- 
ness in his tone. 

“ As you see, sir,” answered John, with a faint at- 
tempt at a smile, and a nervous shifting of a leg. 

“You know as well as I do, John,” said the captain 
sternly, “that this is only a piece of insolence on your 
part ! ” 

“ If it strikes you in that light, sir — of course : but 
I should take it very kindly of you if you could see 
your way to let me be in for the trouble.” 

“ In for the trouble ? This is a most unprecedented 
piece of cheek, John Hardy ! Be good enough to get 
ashore, sir. Do you imagine that I am going to have 
your blood on my hands, then ? ” 

“Whose blood, sir ? ” 

“ Your blood, sir ! ” 

“ My blood is all right, sir,” said John sulkily. 

“ Come, come, are you sane ? Can’t you see that 
we are all going to pretty certain death, boy ? ” 

“I can’t think that, sir.” 

“ Not ? Aren’t French and German cannon as good 
as English, then ? ” 

“ They may be on land, sir ; but hardly, I think, on 
Her Majesty’s seas.” 

At these words, “ Her Majesty’s seas,” back went the 
captain’s head in one sudden cry olgleeful laughter. 
Her Majesty’s seas ! Perhaps there was not one living 
man English enough, and audacious enough, to pro- 


58 The Yellow Danger 

duce that phrase, save this particular sub-lieutenant 
standing bashfully there. 

But he, on his" part, saw nothing extraordinary in 
the phrase — it slipped from him quite naturally, an 
offspring of his quietly supercilious habit of mind. 

The captain's face settled soon again to gravity. 
This was no laughing matter. 

But we are wasting time, John Hardy," he said 
severely. Will you be good enough, now, to leave 
my ship ? " 

In what, sir ? " 

In — in — what did you come in ? " 

In the picket-boat, sir." 

The captain turned his face from side to side, puz- 
zled and irritated. John, seeing entreaty useless, was 
adopting tactics. 

You shan't stay here, sir — that is certain," cried 
the captain. Somehow or other — you go ! Get the 
dinghy." 

Shall I scull her ashore, sir ?" 

^^Yes." 

And who will bring her back, sir ? " 

I don't care ! Take two blue-jackets, then." 

Isn't it rather late, sir ? " 

How ? " 

I fancy the ship is already moving rapidly through 
the water, sir." 

The captain started. 

Boy, boy," he muttered under his breath. He 
loved the lad, and had loved his father. 

But the captain was just now extremely busy. He 
tossed his hand and walked away. The strength and 
tenacity of John Hardy's will sometimes produced 
results which had the look of fate and inevitableness. 

And so it happened that he was with the Channel 
Squadron, borne in the Jupiter, when it steamed at 
thirteen knots past Selsey Bill to meet the fleet of the 
Allies, 


CHAPTER YII. 

IIT THE CHANNEL. 

De. Yeh How had his idea, and John Hardy had 
his. Nothing in the world is of such supreme impor- 
tance as an Idea. 

Dr. Yen How’s Idea was this : that the cupidity and 
blind greed of the white races could be used by the 
yellow man as a means to the yellow man’s triumph ; the 
white races could be made to exterminate each other 
preparatory to the sweep, in hundreds of millions, of 
the yellow man over an exhausted and decimated 
Europe. Hence the grants by China of territories to 
Russia, Germany, and France — and the consequent war. 

John Hardy’s Idea was this : that the new naval 
warfare admitted of every bit as much constructive 
plan and shrewd sea-tactics as the old ; that the sailor- 
hero was still possible — the new Drake, the new 
Richard Grenville, the new Nelson ; that it was not 
(as every one supposed) a mere question of weight of 
metal, or superiority of gun-fire, now any more than it 
ever was ; that a man born with the sea in his soul, and 
the sea-breeze in his hair, like the old sailor-souls, 
would still do the trick. 

This was his Idea ; and he had also this other, sub- 
sidiary to that first one — had it more vitally than any 
other modern Briton— that nothing in the world was 
of the least importance, except England, and the 
march of England, and the glory of England. 

Perhaps the lad was utterly unconscious that he had 
these ideas, but he had them ; they were there in him, 
radically and profoundlv ; and if he was unconscious 

59 


6o 


The Yellow Danger 


of them as he was of his circulation, that was an added 
proof of their radicalness and profundity. 

His nature was as elementary, and simple, and strong, 
as the nature of Dr. Yen How. 

Just as the captain of the flung his head 

irritably and turned from him, John Hardy caught the 
sleeve of a middy who was hurrying past, and said 
ea : 



‘‘ I have got permission to see the row after all ! ’’ 

‘‘ Good biz,’’ the middy nodded, as he passed on. 

I wish you joy ! ” 

And presently he was at the sleeve of a sub. Saying : 

Here I am, you see. I have got permission to look 
on at the row after all ! ” 

It is like your ubiquitous luck. Hardy,” the other 
said, and hurried by. 

Hardy was usually more taciturn than this ; the fact 
that he Avent about in this way volunteering his news 
shoAved that he Avas more or less excited, out of him- 
self. He Avas going to see a fight — a real one this time. 
To this moment he had no idea Avhat a naval battle was 
actually like. Summer maneuvers were a different 
affair. 

His coldly practical nature Av^as illustrated by the fact 
that the grudging quality of the caj^tain’s permission 
did not at all lessen his satisfaction ; he had got it — • 
that Avas enough. He looked only at results. 

The object of the enemy Avas to effect a landing at 
Sh or eh am, or near it — a quiet spot, less conspicuous 
than Brighton or Worthing. They hoped by their 
prompt and sudden arrWal, so soon after the declara- 
tion of war, to catch the British fleet napping — as, in 
fact, they partially did — and so to be able to land three 
corps d’armee. consisting of 120,000 men, 360 guns, 
30,000 horses, and a fairly adequate commissariat and 
field-transport materiel, without the inconvenience of 
first of all undergoing a naval engagement. 

Their sudden presence on the shores of Britain 
proved that Avar must have been secretly premeditated 
and prepared for by them some time before the decla- 
ration of hostilities — another indication of that sus- 


In the Channel 


6i 


picion of treachery which, all through, characterized 
the action of the Allies in this war. But the excellent 
telescopes of the coast-guards, and the brisk scouts of 
the British fleet, served to give a warning which, though 
late, was not hopelessly so. The enemy, moreover, in 
their over-confidence, had committed an error in 
tactics in approaching too near the coast while there 
was still a little twilight. 

Off Bognor the captains and commanders of ships 
were assembled in the large ward-room of the Majestic, 
Bear- Admiral John Fellowes had signaled half-speed, 
and summoned them to a conference. 

The officers sat round, hanging on his words, as the 
Eear-Admiral began to speak. 

^^Of course, gentlemen,” he said, it has been a 
matter of anxious consideration to me in what forma- 
tion we are to approach the enemy. What makes our 
arrangements rather difficult is the fact that we know 
little of their present disposition. But it seems to me 
that one thing should be certain — namely, that their 
troop-ships and liners will be stationed well in the rear, 
while the whole weight of metal of their ships of war 
will be put forward to protect their land forces on the 
liners, etc. They will assume that our first care will 
be to destroy their land forces in our panic at the idea 
of invasion, and their whole effort will be bent upon 
protecting them, and frustrating us. 

‘‘ Of course, in thus guessing our objects they are 
right enough. We wish, naturally, to baulk the at- 
tempt at invasion ; but I must point out to you that 
our object, to be wise, must be twofold, and that our 
secondary object is more important than our first. 1 
mean, that from the reports we have received of the 
number of transports, etc, it is impossible that they 
can have with them a land-force of more than 120,000 
to 160,000 men, and that, even supposing these effect a 
landing, and the land-forces at present in Britain are 
liossibly quite capable of dealing with them, provided 
the enemy be not reinforced by fresh increments of in- 
vading army-corps in the near future. 

It must, then, be our business to make such fresh 


62 


The Yellow Danger 

invasions impracticable for some little time by shatter- 
ing, as far as we can, the enemy’s powers of convoy — 
that is, their ships of war. For I need not point out 
to you that the combined countries of France, Eussia, 
and Germany may place several millions of armed men 
in England, practically as fast as they choose, if only 
they have ships to bring them over, and a convoy to 
protect them from the battle-ships and coast-defense 
ironclads at British stations. And against such forces 
the land-force of Britain would, of course, be impotent. 

‘‘ This, then, is my point of view. We must send 
back our invaders with such a rip in their battered 
metal that these particular war-ships shall have had 
enough of invasion for some little time. 

In the effort we shall all probably perish, but that, 
I take it, is not with any of us a matter of salient im- 
portance. 

What I propose is this : that we approach to 
within five miles of the enemy in our present forma- 
tion ; if they approach us in line abreast, or in a 
semicircle convex or concave, then we echelon right 
and left respectively, each battle-ship fastening on the 
nearest antagonist as fortune may decide ; while gun- 
boats, torpedo-boats, and fast third-class cruisers like 
the PeloruSy will deploy right and left in an attempt 
to get behind the enemy, where they will do all the 
damage they can, special attention being given to the 
destruction of rudders and screws, so as to obviate their 
ramming-power. 

If, on the other hand, they confront us in line 
ahead, then we retain our formation, the first s^hip at- 
tacking the first, the second the second, and so on. 

My instructions at present cannot, of course, but 
be general, and much, in any case, must be left to 
individual initiative — happily so, I think, in the case 
of British commanders. Further orders will, if neces- 
sary be sent out by trumpet-call, and passed from ship 
to ship in both files.” 

A bow of acquiescence went round the table. The 
policy was felt to be bad for the immediate present, 
but wise for the immediate future, 


In the Channel 63 

At that moment the flag-lieutenant of the Eear- 
Admiral entered the room. 

‘‘The enemy’s fleet is reported in sight, sir,” he 
said. 

“ Ah ! what is the hour ? ” 

“ Nearly three bells, sir.” 

“What has been made out ?” 

“ Only three electric search-lights in a line — pro- 
bably they are thirteen miles off.” 

“Are preparations well advanced on board ?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ And the same, I presume, in all your ships, gentle- 
men ? ” 

They all expressed assent. 

“Well, then, gentlemen, here, you see, we are in 
for it — ‘ it ’ meaning the first really great naval battle 
of modern times. I dare say that we shall conduct 
ourselves with credit, fighting as we do in the name of 
justice and our country. In half an hour, say, we 
shall be face to face with these people. I recommend 
that a ration of grog be served out to all blue-jackets 
meantime, and that final preparations be pushed for- 
ward. My flag-lieutenant will send up as signal the 
words ‘ For England.’ I think that is all I need say 
now, except to wish you a very hearty good-by, and a 
fine fight, and the aid and favor of Almighty God.” 

The officers, having saluted, trooped hurriedly forth 
with mutual adieux, and half-satiric, half-sad morituri 
salutamuses, and went away through the gloom each 
to his own ship. 

The snouts of the ponderous bulks of metal were 
plowing leisurely through the sea. 

Yonder, lit by flash-light on the flag-ship, fluttered 
the battle-word of the coming combat — “ For Eng- 
land.” 

But the night now had darkened. A wind freshened 
from the sou’west, and drove somber expeditions of 
slow cloud over the face of the scurrying and strug- 
gling moon. She seemed affrighted at the pregnant 
silence of this gliding navy — a silence pregnant with a 
thousand thunders. But the sea was fairly calm, 


64 The Yellow Danger 

crisped only with short low fringes of foam driven by 
the wind. 

The Jupiter was the second ship in the port file — 
that is to say, on the side nearest the coast as the fleet 
forged eastwards. 

Her captain had been so preoccupied with affairs 
during the bustle of the afternoon that he had eaten 
nothing for hours. Almost immediately on reaching 
his own ship after the conference, he hurriedly de- 
scended to his quarters, and sat to swallow some cold 
mouthfuls. 

Happening to lift his eyes as he ate, he saw, sitting 
on a couch in the apartment, and quietly watching 
him, his guest, John Hardy. He had forgotten 
John. 

‘‘Well, John,” he said, across a gag of mutton, “ so 
you have dared, after all. In spite of my orders, eh, 
sir ? Wolj, I suppose I must make the best of you, 
as you are here. But you are a foolish lad, you 
know.” 

“ It caiTt be of any consequence, sir,” said John. 
“I wanted to see a fight. It is always experience.” 

“Yes, yes. But a young man like you. Have you 
no care for your life, sir ? ” 

“ It can’t be of any consequence, sir.” 

“ ‘ A day less or more, 

On sea, or on shore, 

We die — does it matter when ? ” 

Is that the sort of sentiment, eh, John ? ” 

“ Something of that sort, sir.” 

“ Well, you might do worse, perhaps. But what is 
the matter with you ? The sweat is rolling do\Yn your 
face. 

“They have been allowing me to help a little about 
the ship, sir.” 

“ What, with your own hands, sir ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Well, John Hardy — I shall never have another 
chance of telling you, so let me tell you now, boy — I 


In the Channel 


65 

must say that I regard you as a most worthy specimen 
of the Kavy. Your school and cadet careers were not 
very brilliant, were they ? Rather — ahem — well — we 
will say nothing of that. But in other respects — you 
know what I would say, perhaps — I give you my Cer- 
tificate — that sort of thing. Certainly, you are as bold 
as a fiy, modest, thoroughly English — a little — er — 
original, perhaps, eh, sir ? Like your father, eh, sir ? 
But with the makings of a great sailor in you, John 
Hardy. Pity you should be throwing yourself away 
like this.^^ 

John was blushing. 

You are very kind, sir,” he just muttered. 

Do not mention it. The circumstances excuse one, 
you know, in being quite frank.” 

Quite so, sir.” 

J ohn, all the time, was burning to ask a question. 
Suddenly he said : 

Might I ask, sir, what are the proposed tactics for 
the battle ? ” 

‘‘Well, John, there^s going to be plenty of fun, 
apparently, for you to see. The idea is to ‘concentrate 
all our efforts upon the battleships and big cruisers, so 
as to render it out of the question, if possible, for this 
particular fleet again to act as convoy to an invading 
force.” 

“ And the liners and transports, sir ? ” 

“ They are to be left severely alone this time.” 

“ To land their troops on British soil, sir ? ” 

“Yes, boy — yes — this time.” 

Suddenly John Hardy leapt to his feet, his hands 
clenched, his face inflamed. 

“ Oh, sir ! ” he cried. 

The captain looked at him in surprise, saying : 

“ Well, what’s the matter ?” 

“ Captain MacLeod, England will never bear such an 
indignity ! ” 

“ Well, my boy, but war, you understand, is not fun 
and heroics— it is dead earnest. England will have to 
bear it, I’m afraid.” 

She shan't, iy God! ” cried John Hardy, striking 

5 


66 


The Yellow Danger 

out liis right fist, suddenly riven and smitten by the 
Call of Heaven within him. 

Then, immediately, he fell back upon the couch, 
sobbing bitterly into his two hands. 

The captain stood over him, patting his shoulder, 
murmuring : 

“ Poor John ! poor John I ” 


CHAPTEE VIII 


THE BATTLE 

The fleets drew nearer, vaguely revealed to each 
other by electric search-lights. 

That morning, as early as flve o’clock, the French, 
Eussian, and German national anthems had been played 
on board the fleet of the Allies at Brest, and the colors 
saluted. Immediately afterwards the ships steamed 
out of harbor. The land-troops were already massed 
on board the transports. 

To prevent their movements being watched and re- 
ported, they had proceeded at a high speed, never very 
far from the French coast, till they reached the longi- 
tude of Fecamp ; then, striking directly northward for 
Beachy Head, had slackened speed about five o’clock, 
forty miles from the coast ; then, as the twilight 
gathered, they had deflected their course to about west 
by north, making in a leisurely way for the neighbor- 
hood of Shoreham. When they first became aware of 
tlie approach of the British fleet, they were moving 
almost directly westward, as the British were moving 
directly eastward. 

The formation of the enemy was in a quadruple line 
abreast. In the front were fourteen first-class battle- 
ships at twelve cables’ interval ; in the second, cruisers 
of the three classes ; in the third, gunboats, torpedo- 
boats, and composite gun-vessels ; in the fourth, the 
array of liners and troop-ships bearing the land- 
forces. 

The British Eear-Admiral had rightly surmised what 

67 


68 


The Yellow Danger 

would be the action of the French Contre-Amiral ; his 
primary thought was for the troop-ships. Out from 
the flagship went a trumpet-call, repeated far over the 
ocean in a long liue of sonorous and brazen-lunged 
iteration. Down the files of ships it went braying, a 
voice that died and instantly rose in vibrant outcry 
again, commanding all troopers and liners to go pacing 
backward twelve miles to eastward, and there main- 
tain a hollow square till further notice. 

Through the wide region of black smoke which poured 
forth now over the Channel from the entire allied fleet, 
flocked the captains of ships to a hurried conference 
with Contre-Amiral des Yismes de Month ier on the 
Amiral Baudin. 

His recommendation was that the allied battleships 
should form in two double lines, converging inwards 
toward the British ships, just as the British ships (as 
could be already surmised) were diverging outward to- 
ward the Allies. He said : ^‘AVe have fourteen battle- 
ships — they, I take it, eight. (In reality, the British 
battleships only numbered seven, for the Majestic was 
gone.) I propose, then, that the four battleships of 
our present line now farthest to starboard will form 
the outer converging line of starboard attack, and the 
next four the inner converging line, parallel to the 
outer ; thus, toward the coast, two starboard lines of 
eight allied battleships wdll have between their broad- 
sides a line of four British battleships — and the contest, 
I think, should be short. 

In the same way with our port battleships ; the 
three farthest to port will form the outer converging 
line, tlie next three the inner — thus two port lines of 
six allied battleships will have between their broadsides 
a line of four British battleships, eight to four, and six 
to four. The contest should not be long, messieurs. I 
even suggest, as a point of tactics, that, in view of our 
preponderance, we should make our victory instantane- 
ous by placing a very short interval between the combat- 
ant ships — say, a kilometre at the most ; for, of course, 
the shorter the conflict the less our damage — a point of 


The Battle 


69 

immeasurable importance to us, considering the role we 
have to fill in convoying more invading land-forces in the 
near future. I need not point out, too, that an enemy’s 
ship, hemmed in between two hostile ships, will be the 
more hampered in ramming, the closer the quarters. 
But we have little time for talk ; cruisers, gunboats, 
and composite vessels will find their work cut out ac- 
cording to the dispositions of the enemy’s less massive 
flotilla. I can only hope tliat these recommendations 
meet with your approval, as I know they do with that 
of my colleague, Vice-Admiral von Griidenau. Adieu, 
then, messieurs ! This interruption to our progress 
will, in a quarter of an hour, be overcome. Vive la 
France! Vivent — vivent — les AllUs ! 

Vive la France — vivent les Allies ! repeated the 
allied commanders round the table, as they raised to 
their lips wine poured from the carafes ; then, saluting, 
they hurried to their gigs. 

And none too soon. They had hardly reached their 
ships, and turned them to the performance of the pre- 
scribed evolutions, when the fleet of England was upon 
them. . 

The Contre-Amiral had made a small error in guess- 
ing the formation of the British battleships. Ho had 
assumed that, their number being small, they ap- 
proached the allied fleet in two divergent single lines 
of ships ; but the British Bear- Admiral, hoping for 
some unknown hypothetical advantage, had, as we have 
seen, decided to advance in two divergent echelons, or 
step-shape formations. The error was of little impor- 
tance, for the Allies would quickly detect the formation, 
and modify their movements accordingly. 

Unfortunately for them the eyes of John Hardy, 
with their faculty of sight and insigjjt, were abroad' 
over the sea tliat night. 

He had burst into sobs in the captain’s quarters of 
the Jupiter, The captain stood over him, patting his 
shoulder, wondering at the intensity of the lad’s pride 
and patriotism. 

But it was neither pride nor patriotism which was 


7o The Yellow Danger 

then rending the frail frame of Hardy with sobs — it 
was something far more. To hear irresistibly the 
Heavenly Call to be up and save the world, and then, 
at once, to be overwhelmed with the bitter sense of the 
strong Commonplace, and with the feeling of sheer 
impotence in the face of it — this is the tragedy of 
genius. 

John sobbed. There had risen in him a sublime 
strength, an immoderate arrogance, and with it the 
tingling consciousness that, were he that night the 
Admiral of the Fleet, he would and could some- 
how save England from the shame of an invading 
foot ; then, all at once, he remembered that he was 
by no means the Admiral of the Fleet. So he 
sobbed. 

But his sobs were in the nick of time, for he had the 
trick of luck. They softened and touched the captain, 
just at the right instant. 

“Well, John, I must be going,’' he said. 

John lifted up his hot face. 

“ Where shall I take my place, sir ? ” he asked. 

“Your place ? I should stay here if I were you.” 

“ May I, sir, if it is not asking too much ” 

“What?” 

“ Come with you, sir.” 

“Where to ? ” 

“ The conning-tower, sir.” 

“ My good fellow ! ” 

If it is not asking too much, sir. One must see 
the fight from somewhere, as one happens to be here.” 

“ AVell — but — the conning-tower ! ” 

“ I shall make myself small, sir. You won’t talk to 
me, nor I, of course, to you. A guest chooses his lodg- 
ing in a case of doubt, you know, sir.” 

He was smiling now, and when he smiled his face 
was wonderfully winning. 

The captain hesitated, and was lost. He said : 

“Well, you are an original, John, that’s all I can 
say — like your poor father before you, boy. Come along, 
then — come along ! ” 

They ran briskly up. 


The Battle 71 

Suddenly the still night was a-sound. The two fleets 
were about to mingle. 

At that moment so great was the disparity of weight, 
that the wildest hope of patriotism could have predicted 
nothing but swift destruction to the British ; nor was 
the objective of the British captains victory, but only 
the disablement, as far as might be, of the enemy. 

To explain the appalling ruin and havoc which one 
pair of seeing sailor-eyes brought upon the entire allied 
squadron, we must employ diagrams. 

The following is the formation in which the seven 
British battleships approached the enemy, with an in- 
terval of about a knot, or nautical mile, between each 
pair of ships, A being the Rear-AdmiraBs ship, the 
Magnificent, A! the Prince George leading the starboard 
echelon, and B' the Jupiter ^ bearing Hardy, 







c' 



The following is the formation in which the allied 
battleships advanced, about the same interval being 


72 The Yellow Danger 

preserved among ship-pairs as among British shij)- 
pairs. 

Wsit < ■ 


n 



The fleets were no sooner on the point of mingling 
than Hardy, standing now with Captain MacLeod in 
the conning-tower of the Jupiter, was in full possession 
of their method of advance ; and he was no sooner in 
full possession of it, than he started, his eyes widened, 
and words burst from him. 

Sir/^ he cried, ‘^the enemy are advancing in two 
double files. It seems clear to me that they suppose 
us to be advancing in two single files.” 

“Yes, that is so,” said the captain, proceeding to 
give the order in which John had interrupted him. 

“ But, sir, sir,” persisted John. 

“Well, John, well,” said the captain. 

“ It seems to me, sir — really — that if the Jupiter and 
the Victorious both put out external lights and lie low, 
the enemy will continue to think that we are in single 
file instead of in echelon, and then ” 


The Battle 


73 


Up leapt the captain’s arms. 

By gad, you are right, boy ! ” he cried, staring hard 
at Hardy, his head struck into a sudden sideward sus- 
pension of silent meditation. 

Then, in a flash, he saw it all — the whole inward- 
ness of the boy’s suggestion — the long vista of results 
— the whole huge drama of the enemy’s disaster. 

Sir — Captain MacLeod ” said John, all eager- 

ness. 

But to warn the Victorious in time ? ” mused the 
captain. 

Send mcy sir ! Water from the engines — the picket- 
boat ! The Victorious is only two miles ofl ; I shall 
be there in three or four minutes. ” 

‘‘ Well — I say yes. You understand, of course, that 
you will never come back.” 

Thank you, captain — good-by — they are done for, 
captain, by the Lord ! ” 

He was gone, rushing. 

On board Her Majesty’s ships of war things were 
done with a certain nimbleness ; everything was oiled 
and easy, and went ofl with the gliding smoothness of 
lightning. The Jupiter was carrying at her masthead 
the bright white steam-light, on her starboard bow 
the usual green, and on her port bow the usual red 
light ; by the time these were out, and the whole ship 
plunged into darkness, the little picket-boat was driv- 
ing her head through two combs of foam, herself in 
darkness, with Hardy and three blue- jackets, in a 
direction nearly south. 

The picket-boat passed before the ram of the Repulse 
(0), and in less than two minutes Hardy was at the 
conning-tower of the Victorious (B). 

Suddenly the Victorious, too, vanished into darkness. 

The night was now very gloomy. 

There remained a third ship, the Mars (D), whose 
presence it was desirable to conceal for the time being ; 
the concealment v/as not so necessary, as she was more 
remote from the advancing fleet, and by the time the 
signiflcance of her presence in her then position was 
understood, the mischief might be done. 


74 The Yellow Danger 

But Hardy would leave nothing to chance. It was 
quite out of the question now that, if he attempted to 
reach the Mars, the little picket could live in the 
shattered sea-surface, into which, surely, in a minute’s 
time all that area of water would be torn by shot and. 
shell. Yet he dared. The little boat, in a very pas- 
sion of haste, throbbing as though she would throb lier 
little heart out, went panting northwestward toward 
the Mars. 

Was he too late ? There was a sudden shock and 
roar from the east, and in the night a dull glare red 
and morose. He sat, the tiller-ropes in one hand, the 
other holding a double-glass to his eyes. A gust of 
wind had blown away his straw hat ; the breeze was 
a-play in his hair. 

A British first-class torpedo-boat rushed sounding 
past him, hasting wrathfully to battle, washed in spray 
from stem to stern. Close by his starboard bow she 
dashed like an angry darting fish, leaving the little 
picket nodding and dipping in a choppy sea which 
almost swamped her hurried embassy. The next 
moment a shrapnel-shell burst into light a hundred 
yards before him. The fight had commenced — Bellona 
was abroad. 

Was he too late ? He knew now that to reach the 
Mars he must perish. Certainly, he could never return 
to the Juinter. But he held on his way. He was full 
of a great -joy. Now he knew verily for what he was 
born ; it was for this — the mixed and multitudinous 
roar of cannon sounding over the sea — England’s sea 
— his sea ! Something in his heart, in his life’s 
blood, and in his very soul’s soul, answered to it, 
was akin to it. Never had he been really glad till this 
night. He held on his rash and desperate way. 

His eyes were alight with battle. 

Suddenly he said under his breath : Bravo ! ” 

The lights of the Mars had gone out into darkness. 

Her captain — Captain Henderson — had noted, first, 
the extinguishing of the Jiqnter lights, and had been 
puzzled ; then the going out into darkness of the 
Victorious. He had stood with knit brows for two 


The Battle 75 

minutes, and had understood. A few seconds later 
the Mars, too, was invisible. 

At once John Hardy put his helm to starboard, run- 
ning about northeast, to regain the Jupiter. He was 
now hurrying into the very region of the starboard 
limb of the enemy’s fleet, and by the time he neared 
the Repulse, that ship was already engaged with two 
of the enemy. In another half-minute the sea around 
these three was a white tempest of thrashed and spurt- 
ing spray, as when thronging hail flogs stingingly upon 
a lake, and the sky about them was a vague domed 
cavern of coppery flame. Never did sailor, in so small 
a craft, run the gauntlet of a more ticklish peril, pass- 
ing through a sea crowded with torpedoes and crack- 
ing shells, and balls of Are. But the picket-boat never 
so much as swerved ; straight onward she tlirobbed, 
through the region of lurid half-light, at her stern- 
post the Union Jack ; then once more into darkness. 
John Hardy sprang up the side of the dark and 

ran to the conning-tower. 

‘^You have done it, then, John?” cried Captain 
MacLeod ; I congratulate you from my soul.” 

‘‘Thank you, sir. Now, perhaps, I think we may 
see these fellows banged a little ” 

“ We may, John, we may — thanks to you, boy. 
Wait, wait — let us see.” 

It did not take long to see. 

In a very few minutes the condition of the battle was 
this : two French ships, one on each side of her, were 
battering the Magnificent (A,) into shambles ; two more, 
one on each side of her, were making a wreck of the 
Prince George (A) ; two more were tackling the Repulse 
(C,); the was not flghting, the Victorious 

was not fighting, the Mars was not fighting— the Allies 
being unconscious at the moment of their presence in 
their then unsuspected position ; one German ship was 
in collision with a French on the starboard side of the 
Resolution (C) ; one French ship was ramming another 
French ship between the Resohition and the Mars (D) ; 
another French ship was blowing a German ship out of 
the water at a point a long way to the west of the British 


76 


The Yellow Danger 


jjeet ; and two German ships were cruising about in 
the same longitude, searching in vain for two enemies 
which should have been there, and were not. 

Thus, of the fourteen allied battleships, six only 
were engaged in actual conflict with three British 
vessels, while a fourth British vessel (C) was pouring 
a tempest of barbette, quick-firing, and machine shot 
into the ships in collision on her starboard, and watch- 
ing the sinking of a French ship rammed by a French 
on her port, side. How this complexity of tragedy 
overwhelmed the enemy will be readily seen by the 
following plan, published in every London newspaper 
the next morning. Black squares and small letters 
stand for allied ships, circles and capitals for British, 
the three British which put out their lights being 
printed black. 





0 



/ 


The Battle 


77 

It will be seen from the plan that, the lights of the 
three ships being extinguished, the starboard limb of 
the allied squadron saw a straight line of British ships 
— namely, C, C', A', — consisting of the RGSoliiiioii, the 
Reinilse, and the Prince George, This made them 
certain of their conjecture that the British were ad- 
vancing in two single lines, and they accordingly pro- 
ceeded to port and starboard of these three, in order 
to attack on both broadsides ; but expecting not three, 
but four, British vessels in each limb, the allied ships 
01 and 0 went on south-westward to seek them. 

Meanwhile, on their port side also, the allied ships 
saw a straight line of British ships, namely A, C, con- 
sisting of the Magnificent and — once again — the Res- 
olution. Believing that this limb, too, consisted of 
four distinct ships, two of which were farther on, and 
not appreciating the fact that the same Resolution (C) 
was about to be attacked by two of their starboard 
fleet, they steamed forward. Two of their ships, c and 
/, reached the stations indicated on the plan, surprised 
to find no enemy ; while two others, I and m, came into 
contact with two of their own starboard limb, h and c. 
Before she could stop her speed, on had hopelessly 
rammed e, and the Resolution was pouring a murder- 
ous hail upon both ^ and I, which had similarly collided, 
h, at this time being an inert mass floating helplessly 
with screws shattered by I ; while yonder to the west, 
c and 0 both searching for the missing enemy, made a 
sudden discovery, and began to batter each other with 
shrapnel, before ever guessing at the hopeless error, 
and the blind delusion, and the harum-scarum of dis- 
aster, in which they had been involved by the simple 
expedient of Hardy. 

At this moment — simultaneously — the three dark- 
ened ships opened fire ; and peaceful merchantmen, 
heading with slow industry on their diverse ways, heard 
far and wide over the Channel the cry and rumor of 
tliat complex war. 

It was a fearful battle. Nearly all the allied ships 
which were in actual combat with British ships, having 
taken position in the hope of pouring a double broad- 


78 The Yellow Danger 

side on the British ship, one from each side, now sud- 
denly found themselves in the predicament which they 
had planned for the British ; for, without warning, a 
dark unsuspected ship opened fire upon them, placing 
between two fires those who for others had planned 
two fires. 

Thus, the ship Ic was between the fires of the Jupiter 
and the Rejmlse, the ship / between the fires of the Re- 
pulse and the Victorious, and the ship cl between the 
fires of the Victorious and the Magnificent. As yet, 
no colors had been struck, but the Friedrich Willi elm 
{h), whose stern-works had been shattered by the Fu- 
guesclin (?), was a barely-fioating ruin, with only one 
water-tight compartment uninvaded by the waters ; 
the Prince George (A') was just plunging — with screws 
high in the air, and a shriek from her burst and hissing 
engines that reached the clouds — to her last resting- 
place ; the Massena (e), with a strange fatal sudden- 
ness, had sunk on being rammed by the Hoche {m) ; 
and almost immediately afterwards the Hoche herself 
cracked in twain amidships, struck by a torpedo in- 
tended for the Massena, which had been launched by 
a second-class torpedo-boat lowered in the dark by the 
Mars ; while the Mars herself, having not yet relighted 
her lamps, was rammed at her central armor-belt by a 
second-class British cruiser, the Charyhdis, the smaller 
ship sheering away with broken bows to go down by 
the head three miles away amid a crowd of allied 
cruisers. 

Yonder to westward of the thickest region of battle, 
the Amiral Bauclin (c), with a single 37-c.m. shell, had 
annihilated both funnels of the Brandenburg, while the 
Brandenburg, before she could detect the ruse by which 
she was made to destroy her own flagship, Jjad rattled 
the ribs of Amiral Baudin with a rain of thousands 
of rounds of machine and quick-firing 10^ and 8-c.m. 
shot, and had sent a barbette shell shrieking into the 
bowels of the French ship, where it ripped her armored 
deck, and in a nightmare of fury rent the whole cen- 
tral interior of the vessel into debris. 

'^xjt was shortly after this that even the din of that 


The Battle 


79 

wide and various warfare received, as it were, an added 
shock of horror, when a broad sheet of flame was seen 
to rise and ride in quivering glare toward the sky, and 
the next moment a bang of thunder where the Repulse 
had been shook the universal sea. A Are had run 
through her entire length between-decks, and ignited 
at nearly the same moment every atom of explosive 
within her into one splendid detonation. She did not 
burst — she crumbled to fragments. At the same time, 
at the other end of that line of ships, the Magnificent 
was quietly going down by the poop, where a French 
submarine-boat had affixed a Whitehead. 

In a very few minutes after the actual commence- 
ment of hostilities, four of the seven British battleships 
had disappeared, and nine of the allied fourteen. 

Of the intricate and incalculable warfare that was 
darting in furious wrath in every direction in the shape 
of the less massive armatures little was salient where 
all was vast. The enemy was preponderant in number, 
but deflcient in weight of flrst-class cruisers. The 
mutual havoc went on rapidly with complex disaster 
and success. Ships about to disappear rose again, 
blown high by torpedoes ; men on the point of going 
down in the wheeling suction of some great vessel were 
arrested in their descent to be mangled by distracted 
shrapnel, or scalded by some flight of stinging steam ; 
crafts were destroyed and destroyed again, and ten 
times destroyed again, before they sank in scattered 
shreds. It was an anarchy and blindness of rage, 
which rent the already rent, and mutilated the already 
murdered. 

The Jupiter, by some favor of her position, was still 
seaworthy, when Captain MacLeod, a minute after the 
blowing up of the Repulse, said aloud to himself : 

‘^Now, I think I might very well ram that ship.” 

That ship ” meant the French battleship k, which, 
now that the Eepiilse has gone, was turning, together 
with her sister-ship j, her whole attention upon the 
Jupiter. Part of the Jupiter’s fore-deck had already 
been ripped, and a fore barbette gun unshipped. 

At once she went wheeling in a sixteen-point curve 


8o 


The Yellow Danger 

to starboard, pouring at the same time a broadside 
upon the enemy. But it was at once seen that the 
most delicate seamanship would now be required, for 
not only was the Jujnter’s intention detected, but k 
began to maneuver to anticipate the attack by herself 
delivering the ram, while the chase was promptly 
joined byy, which had just lodged a finishing shell in 
the Victorious (B). 

T?ie three vessels, though one of them was sinking 
slowly, and all were more or less ruined, were intact in 
engines and steering-gear, and went careering in swift 
flight on evolutionary curves whose outcome only the 
nicest commanding skill could determine. To destroy 
a funnel of one or both, — this was Captain MacLeod’s 
hope. He started a rattle of quick-firing shot as the 
three vessels wheeled nearer. But there was a racket 
on board the Jupiter — a bursting shell — a clatter of 
broken plate — a stream of blood poured down John 
Hardy’s face — Captain MacLeod fell limp at his feet. 

At that moment, from the conning-towers of both the 
Trench ships there went forth the command : Pre- 
pare to ram.” The Jupiter v/as between them ; and 
her captain was laid low. 

But a born sailor now commanded her. 

Hardy gave the order to slacken speed. With his 
eyes on both the hurrying, impending ships he waited 
thirty, thirty-five seconds ; and at the right fraction of 
a second he ordered : ‘‘ Full steam ahead ! ” 

Blood covered his face, and the breeze in his hair 
gave him an aspect of wildness and disarray ; but his 
brain was cool. 

As the poop of the slipped elusively from be- 

tween the two advancing rams there arose an outcry 
on both the French ships. But it was too late. No 
celerity of hand, no power on earth, could now avert 
the awful catastrophe. The two bows met, and crashed. 

One of the French ships leaned to port, as if fainting 
in despair, then languidly sank. 

Was he really in command ? Captain MacLeod lay 
at his feet. Who knew ? Would not his, John Hardy’s, 
commands be obeyed tacitly, if he tacitly assumed the 


The Battle 


8i 


command ? And he, at least, was under no orders 
from the Rear-Admiral, lie ordered three points to 
starboard, and full speed ahead. The Jupiter went 
hasting at once directly northward. 

Hardy was running from the fight. 

The first clear necessity seemed to him now to get 
out of the battle, while the Jupiter’s engines were still 
intact. 

He suspected, indeed, that she was already sinking. 
But there was hope. She went plowing northward. 
Her position on the outskirts of the battle favored 
him. 

Of what particular crime was it that he was guilty ? 
He knew well that it was a crime. Was it treason, or 
piracy, or mutiny, or felony ? The place which he 
occupied should have been filled by the commander of 
the Jupiter, now that her captain was senseless. 
Hardy knew that ; but her commander was under flag- 
orders. He was not. 

Three miles to the north he turned the ship’s bow 
from north to northeast ; three more miles and he 
turned it from northeast to east. Now he breathed 
freely ; the Jupiter was well beyond effective range of 
the battling ships. 

Her lights had long since been again put out. On 
she went through the darkness, east by south now, 
battered and br(3cen in her upper works, but tolerably 
sound below — and with funnels still whole ! and with 
a ram plowing through the water at eighteen miles 
an hour ! and absolutely safe now from shot ! 

John Hardy stood in her battered conning-tower 
with the wind in his light hair, and the blood on his 
face, and a slight frown on his brow. And on through 
tlie darkness drove the silent battle-ship. 

In little more than half an hour she was upon that 
hollow square of troopers and line’s, which were here 
just forging through the water till the conclusion of 
the fight. There were thirty-eight of them, and they 
contained over 120,000 men. 

Suddenly, out of the darkness, the Jupiter pounced 
upon them. 

6 


82 


The Yellow Danger 

Ha^ the reader seen a thoroughbred, long-snouted 
fox-terrier, the prize-winner perhaps at some show, let 
loose in a small room among a hundred hoarded rats ? 
With a gleeful, sudden spring he is among them, as 
they scamper into a huddled heap at the corners, seek- 
ing to hide from the very sight of their little, leering 
eyes that countenance of wrath. He, for his part, 
gives one, and only one, swift crack at the bones of 
the neck, and disdainfully drops the limp vermin to 
go on to the next. 

It was something in this way that the Jupiter dealt 
with these thirty-eight troopships and liners. One 
after another they cracked like teapots, they snapped 
like rotten twigs, they sank at a touch. Hardy rammed 
one on one side of the square, and went straight 
on and rammed another opposite ; but in the rapid 
passage from opposite to opposite, he had sunk five 
others with barbette and broadsides of quick-firing 
guns. The Jupiter rushed among them like a fury, 
dashing through a multitude of complex evolutionary 
curves, and heaping havoc all around. It was a scene 
of unparalleled carnage. In a short time the ram of 
the ship was forging through masses of men and horses 
struggling in the water ; what was left of the sides of 
the square was shooting forth fiames ; and the Jupiter 
herself was being swept by tempests of bullets from the 
land-forces. Without visible result, however. . Three 
only of the transports, sufficiently uninjured by the 
time they could get speed, escaped. The rest went 
down. 

It was now a question with Hardy whether he could 
save the Jupiter by beaching her. She was already low 
by the stern, and the coast was miles away. The mo- 
ment his work was ended, he gave the order to turn 
her bow directly northward. 

He only just failed. 

Half a mile out from Brighton, he bent over Captain 
MacLeod, looked close into his eyes, and put his hand 
over his heart. The heart beat, but a splinter had 
gashed all the chest. 


The Battle 


83 

He shook the Captain. A moan came from the 
prostrate man ; his eyes opened. 

‘‘Try to understand,” said John ; “you will have 
to swim or be lost. Can you understand ? ” 

The Captain stared stupidly, but nodded; and John 
stripped him hurriedly, then himself. 

The^ next moment he gave the order : 

“ Hands to leap overboard and make for shore ! ” 

There was nothing resembling a boat any longer left 
on board the Jupiter, 

In two minutes three hundred blue-jackets were in 
the water, and the Jupiter, left alone, took in a smooth 
cascade of sea over her poop. 

A blue-jacket on one side of Captain MacLeod, and 
John on the other, made slow progress forward. To- 
ward ten o’clock they felt bottom ; they dragged them- 
selves forward, and fell upon Brighton beach. 


CHAPTER IX 


JOHN HARDY GIVES AN ORDER 

Hardy in a faint on Brighton sands — Hardy waking 
on a down bed in Cavendish Square — the transition is 
rapid, but that is what in fact occurred. 

Captain MacLeod, though gashed over the chest, 
woke to consciousness before John. John had his 
constant wound inside his chest, and gave signs of it 
in the form of those pathetic, clandestine coughs of 
his. He woke wheezing with asthma. Besides this, 
he had a scratch on his brow from a shell-splinter. 

Xo. 11a Cavendish Square had been the town-res- 
idence of Hardy^s race for some generations, and here, 
in solitary state the young man lived when in London. 

London, lately, had seen a good deal of him, though 
he liked the country when on shore. This new attrac- 
tiveness of London was concentrated for John in a cer- 
tain house in Hampstead. 

When he opened his eyes, torn by a cough, they met 
two others bending low over him — old ones, surrounded 
by wrinkles ; anxious ones, full of solicitude. It was 
half-past eleven o’clock. 

^^Well, Bobbie,” said John with a smile, and 
stretched a little. 

‘^I am pleased to see you so much yourself, I am 
sure, Master John,” said Bobbie ; how are you feeling 
now ? ” 

‘ ‘ I, Bobs ? Much the same as usual, I suppose. 
Where on earth am I ? ” 

‘‘You are in Cavendish Square, sir — in your own 
chamber.” 

84 


John Hardy Gives an Order 85 

Oh ay — I see that. I remember now, Bobbie. 
The battle, eh ? and the swim, eh ? The old Jupiter 
did not do so badly, after all. Did any of the enemy 
escape ? And Captain MacLeod — how is he, Bobbie ? ” 
He is said to be doing fairly well, Master John. 
He has a wound in his chest, which is not serious. He 
is better off than you, I am thinking. It was he who 
brought you here, sir.'’^ 

Wheii?^^ 

About four in the morning, sir.^’ 

‘^Ah, I fancy I recollect something of it. Well, 
that’s all right, then, Bobbie.’^ 

Ah, Master John, not all right, perhaps ! When, 
when, sir, will you learn to take care of that chest, 
sir ? ” 

^^Oh, bother the chest, Bobs, boy. A fellow has 
got. to do his duty, I suppose, Bobbie 
John Hardy’s eyelids lifted as he said this, and he 
turned upward the pure cerulean azure of his eyes in 
clear open query upon old Bobbie,” the aged butler 
of his father and grandfather. 

Well, sir — well — if you put it in that way, of 
course. But still, there is this to be said : it was not, 
so to speak, your dioty to go through this ; you had not, 

as one miglit say, any right to be there ” 

]^o, Bobbie, but I was there, you see. And being 
there, it was natural that one should do what little one 

could for the old country, don’t you think ” 

‘^What little^ sir?” cried Bobbie. Ah, that is 
like your way of speaking, sir — like your father before 
you, Master John ! This is a proud day for poor old 
Bobbie, Master John — forgive me for these tears, sir, 
the tears come quickly when we are old. Master John 
— a proud day, and the tiptop hour in the life of your 
father’s old servant, Master John, making dying easy 
to him from this day onwards, sir. It was what I pre- 
dicted of you, and to-day you have made true your old 
Bobbie’s word before all the world, Master J ohn. Eng- 
land this morning is ringing, sir, with the name of 
Hardy, ay, and France, too, sir, and Europe and 
America ; and the servants down at the Hall have sent 


86 


The Yellow Danger 

a telegram to poor old Bobbie, sir, all of them in a 
body, congratulating me on the man you have shown 
yourself, and if’s a proud day, sir — a proud day — for' 
poor old Kobert Mason, Master John, is this that you 
have brought me/^ 

Eobert’s flow of words was choked by sobs.^ John 
put out his hand, drew him nearer to the bedside, and 
laid one arm round the stringy old neck, the boy's affec- 
tionate nature overflowing in murmured words. 

‘‘I am so glad, Bobbie, if I have made you happy," 
he whispered. You know I would do anything to 
do that, wouldn't I ? But what is it all about, 
Bobbie ? Have I done anything very extraordinary, 
then ? England was bound to beat those mounseer 
people, anyway, wasn't she ? " 

Bob'bie disengaged himself hurriedly. He had his 
proofs with him — chapter and verse. He had been 
poring all the morning over a score of newspapers, Aveep- 
ing as he only wept over his old Bible. He had brought 
them. He flaunted them in the face of John. 

‘‘Eead those, if you want to know what you have 
done ! Well, it's a proud day — a proud day — for poor 
old Bobbie, that’s all I can say ! " he cried in a weak, 
broken voice, treading woe-begone about, his face in 
his hands. 

John glanced through three or four of the papers, 
half sitting up, while Bobbie held ever and again to 
his lips a glass of egg and milk. 

The Times concluded an article by saying : As- 

suming that the account to hand derived from the state- 
ment of Captain MacLeod be correct, what Avords of 
eulogy shall Ave find in our English tongue to extol and 
glorify the very young man to whom Britain this day 
owes her immunity from the shame of an invading 
foot. In ancient Eome, the people would have been 
acutely conscious of their inability to invent any 
Dignity equal to their sense of obligation to such a de- 
liverer. This young man Avould have been proclaimed 
Saviour of his Country, and would have been entrusted 
with the supreme direction of affairs — naA^al, military, 
and political — Avith the injunction to see to it ne res^ 


John Hardy Gives an Order 87 

puhlica damnum capiat. How will England adjust 
herself to this new-found personality in her midst ? 
We wait with some anxiety to see what shall be done 
by the Government to the man whom the nation de- 
lighteth to honor/’ 

The Daily Chronicle lost itself in allusion and met- 
aphor. It said: ‘^What Nelson was to the ship of 
wood and sails, that, it is already clear, is this young 
man to the ship of steel and steam. That is to say, he 
is its genius. He is more still — he is its embodiment. 
Ealph Waldo Emerson, in one of his essays, points out 
that occasionally a man is born who is himself, as it 
were, the Thing in connection with which his activities 
are employed ; thus, Nasmyth was concentrated Iron, 
Edison is himself Electricity, Eudyard was himself a 
Lighthouse. We may add, John Hardy is himself a 
modern Battleship.” 

But it was reserved for the Daily Telegraph to embody 
in its ornamented style something of that shudder of 
delight with which England, through all her breadth, 
learnt with that morning’s sunrise that she had still a 
son with a voice hoarse enough to proclaim once more 
to all the earth her Empire of the Sea. No style could 
have been too florid to express that day the feelings of 
the nation ; for emotion is, in its very nature, florid ; 
and England was in the grip of an emotion. 

The Telegraph said : ‘‘No one has yet accused this 
journal of hero-worship ; and in speaking as we have 
spoken of Sub-Lieutenant John Hardy — whom, we 
confess we have for the first time heard of half an hour 
ago — it is partly the man whom we laud, but above all, 
it is the great nation that could have produced him. 
We have at command some special information about 
Mr. Hardy ; and we say with the certainty of knowledge 
that he is as essentially an English thing as the cliffs 
of Dover, or the smuts of the Black Country. No other 
land could have given birth to anything at all resembling 
him. He is doubly the child of England ; for he is the " 
child of the sea also. The sea is part of England. The 
oceans are not her boundary — they are her continua- 
tion. If one were to ask Mr. Hardy, “ What is the 


88 


The Yellow Danger 

breadth of England ? ’’ he would probably reply, Her 
breadth is the distance between the Poles/^ Such, at 
least, is the account we have received on good authority 
of the temperament of this latest scion of an old Hamp- 
shire family of thoroughgoing sea-dogs/’ 

For the rest, the young gentleman is said to have 
an ailment of the chest ; he has the typical blue eyes 
of the English tar, and very light wavy hair, which he 
wears rather long. He is small in stature, and slim. 
His face is said to be the gravest, saddest, prettiest 
girl-face in the land, and his disposition in private life 
is much more than usually mild, soft, and affectionate. 
Our informant hints at a supposed weakness for the fair 
sex, and confesses that, at the examination stage of 
his career, the man who bids fair to become the 
national hero proved himself far from brilliant. 

So much we have been able to gather ; and this 
fact also, that from boyhood Hardy has seemed to be 
deficient in one of the ordinary instincts of humanity 
— the instinct of Fear. iS'othing, so far, has appeared 
to have had any tendency toward alarming him ; to use 
our informant’s words, He would remain cool if the 
earth were bursting to pieces.” Such is the man who 
has ranged himself on the side of England against the 
allied nations of the Continent. 

This is no time of ordinary routines and gradual 
processes. The moment is ecstatic — the hour -is im- 
mense with Fate. Let the nation for the nonce fling 
to the winds its old Shibboleths of Use and Wont, and 
now, without delay, proceed to garland with its fairest 
laurels the head which has been its salvation. It is 
certain that, but for Mr. Hardy, we writing here 
should be writing with a boom of cannon in our ears. 
What guerdon is high enough for the man who has 
averted such a doom ? Fleet-Captain — Vice-Admiral — 
Admiral ! — these are the honorary titles that occur to 
us, as in no way commensurate with the reward which 
England owes, and will insist upon paying, to her de- 
liverer. Hay, we know little of the English people if it 
do not straightway find something so akin to its own 
secret temper, something so precisely like its own inner 


John Hardy Gives an Order 89 

self, in John Hardy, and in the cool rashness of John 
Hardy, and in his contemptuous way, and in his auda- 
cious gallantry, and in his homely, Cromwellian grand- 
eur of mind — that a hurst of enthusiasm from the 
entire nation shall at once proclaim him its chosen and 
darling. England, as Mr. Matthew Arnold said, is a 
Nation in the grand style ” ; John Hardy, we do not 
hesitate to say, is a Man “ in the grand style. It will 
not be surprising if these two, having once come across 
each other, shall, without delay, strike up a friendship 
perhaps unparalleled in history. The beginning of 
such a friendship, we to-day announce. 

So the Telegraph. The Standard, on the other hand, 
came out with an essay on Blood. A democracy 
without an aristocracy,'*’ it said, is like an egg with- 
out salt. It was necessary for Sub-Lieutenant Hardy, 
before he could annihilate the navies of Europe, to 
have behind him a long line of ancestors whose home 
was the sea. He is the apex of a pyramid, the rest of 
which consists of centuries of the ocean-life and ocean- 
culture of a race. It is Blood that tells.” 

The Morning Post was the only organ to suggest that 
the country should insist upon the importance of 
order, and see to it that, if only formally, the young 
lieutenant should be court-martialed ; while the Even- 
ing News covered itself with horrid fame by saying : 

By the Goddess of Victory, ^^’elson has slain his 
thousands ; but by Jnpiter, Hardy has slain his ten 
thousands ! ” 

There was no journal which did not join in this 
chorus which rose to greet John Hardy as he woke on 
the 17 th of March. He was the only person who saw 
his praises with anything like equanimity. 

He glanced through three of the articles, then pushed 
the heap from him. 

Well, Bobbie,” he said, ^Gt is decent to see one's 
name all about in the prints. But what is it all for ? ” 
There is the opinion of England,” said old Kobert, 
‘‘ about a son of John Nelson Hardy, sir !” 

‘‘Of England, Bobs?” said John ; “don't you be- 
lieve that. Thes^ writing fellows are not England, 


90 The Yellow Danger 

England is silent — great and silent. She means more, 
Bobs, and says less. She will love me, too, for 
what I have done, perhaps — but different from this talk 
— in her own silent way ” 

He stopped, coughing. 

Ah, that cough. Master John !” said Robert. 

Bother the cough ! it is rather bad this morning, • 
though, isn^t it ? Do you know what I think I shall 
do, Bobbie ? 

‘^Well, sir 

Go to a hot country at once."” 

A hot — what, sir ? ” 

A hot country, Bobs.” 

Bobs was alarmed. He at once suspected diplomacy. 
John was whimsical, and wilful. Bobs knew what it 
meant when those dry rose-lips closed tightly. 

‘‘ Which country. Master John ? ” said the old man 
tremulously. 

He divined horribly that the bird was about to fly 
from the old cage. 

Which country, sir ? ” he repeated before John 
answered. 

I am thinking of China, Bobbie,” said John. 

The old man's hands met in terror. 

‘‘ China, Master John ? Oh, don't, don't say China, 
Master John ! ” 

^‘1 believe that China is a hot country — in the 
summer, Bobbie ? ” said John in innocent query. 

I know nothing about China, Master John. Cer- 
tainly, it is no fit place for such as you. ” 

‘‘Oh, I don't see that, Bobbie.” 

“ But why China, Master John, if you really think 
of going anywhere ? China, recollect, is at the other 
end of the world.” 

“Bui that's where my ship is, isn't it, Bobbie ? ” 

“ Your ship ? What, ships again f — and you cough- 
ing there like an echo among the Chiltern Hills ? 
AVell, well, I suppose it's no use an old man talking, — 
who has served your father before you, and your grand- 
father before him.” 

“Yes, it is, Bobbie ^ believe me, it is, Bobs ! But 


John Hardy Gives an Order. 91 

still — really — you will try and be good, won^t you ? I 
must go, Bobbie.’’ 

Well, that sea!” said Bobbie, a hand over his 
mouth, shaking the head of contemplative wonder- 
ment. He was thinking of that ‘‘ sea-fever ” which, in 
the history of the house of Hardy, had more than once 
resulted in domestic tragedy and disaster. 

Well, that sea I ” he said — ‘ ^ those ships I ” 
lN"o, it isn’t quite that, Bobbie ; it isn’t the sea,” 
said John. ‘‘Don’t go blaming the sea. Of course, 
one is fond of the sea, and all that ; but that isn’t 
quite the reason now. I feel that I must go, and I 
must really.” 

“Well, but isn’t that what I said. Master John ? — 
that it is no use an old man talking ? That no one 
pays any heed to him ? no one whom he has watched 
over, and yearned his heart over, more than any son ? 

Ah ” suddenly the old man fell half over the bed, 

imploring with tears. “ Listen to me. Master Johnnie, 
do, now — give up these wild thoughts ! What good 
can come of them ? So, from a boy it always was — and 
did old Bobbie ever lead you wrong ? Do, now, don’t 
think of such things — it is the Enemy puts them in 
your head — drive them away I Here is all England 
going to make much of you — w'hy not stay with old 
Bobbie ? Don’t go, my son I Don’t you go 1 You 
are not in a fit state, and it is no fit place, among a 
pack of heathen men, fighting fiends — what good can 
you do ? Stay here with me 1 Can you suppose that 
I would tell you wrong ? Come, now, comfort old 
Bobbie’s heart — tell me ” 

John Hardy rubbed his pink face against the old 
man’s shriveled cheek. 

“ It is so hard to say no to you, Bobbie,” he said. 
“I hardly think it is right of you to urge me in 
that way. You see, I have made up my mind, and it 
is hardly — kind, is it ? If one’s mind is made up in a 
certain way, it is beyond one’s power to change it, is it 
not ? Go I must, you see.” 

The dry rose-leaves were pressed close now, and 
Bobbie should have noticed them ; but he went rashly on. 


92 


The Yellow Danger 

‘‘ Only listen to me, Master John/’ he said. Hear' 
me out— — ” 

“ Yo — no more/’ said John. “ I bid you be silent 
now. Pass me a sheet of note-paper and a pencil.” 

Old Bobbie, mouse-quiet in a moment, hobbled to a 
desk, and tlien back. 

John scribbled a few words, handed them to the old 
man, and said : 

‘‘It is all right, Bobbie. I am not the least cross, 
you know. But there are times when one must be 
allowed to go one’s own way, aren’t there ? Have that 
telegram sent off at once, will you ? And bring me a 
good big tumbler of champagne, will you, Bobs ? ” 

The telegram with which Bobs shuffled off contained 
these words : — 

To Selby, Captain of English Bird, lying at Freshwater. 

Please have English Bird ready to sail by Sunday night at 
latest. Going coast Spain. .John Hardy. 

The English Bird was a 74-ton schooner-yacht of 
Hardy’s own, with an easy speed of ten knots. 


CHAPTER X 


JOHif HARDY AMONG WOMEN 

John Hardy had this trouble : he was ^^non-intel- 
lectual/^ and his passion had fastened upon a person 
all intellect. 

Had his entry into the Navy depended upon his pass- 
ing the usual examination as a competitor, he would 
certainly never have entered it. As it was, he was a 
‘‘service cadet,^’ and had received a nomination as the 
son of an officer of the navy who had performed long 
and distinguished service. Even so, he had had to pass 
a test examination ; and in this very elementary ordeal 
he had failed in the subject “ French.” Once more he 
received a nomination, and once more he was given a 
chance in the examination-hall of the Commissioners 
of Cannon Row — his very last. All that half-year he 
was “ swotting ” like an elephant at the fatal “ French,” 
to the neglect of “ Composition,” another of his weak 
points. During the hot week in June preceding the 
examination he was a true slave of the lamp ; but his 
strong will this time was at work. With his lucky 
knack, he scraped through. The number of “ pass ” 
marks was 660 : he got 662. 

Hardy was not a book-man ; he had even a secret 
contempt for book-men and book-learning. 

Moreover, as we said before, he got into trouble later 
on. AVhile in training on board the Britannia he had 
been reported to the Admiralty for “unsatisfactory 
conduct” and had been “warned.” The “unsatis- 
factory conduct consisted in walking arm-in-arm with 


94 


The Yellow Danger 

a girl of the lowest class though the streets of Dart- 
mouth, both the girl and John being pretty far gone in 
a state of intoxication. 

These, then, were his weak points : That he was 
far from literary ; that he was too fond of fermented 
things ; that he was too fond of feminine persons. 

Up to the time at which we met him, he still made 
spelling mistakes in common English words in writing 
ordinary letters. 

In five or six of the ports of Europe there were more 
than one young woman unforgetf ul of the crinkled hair 
and angel-eyes of John Hardy. He was, indeed, pain- 
fully shy in the presence of women, and was a very 
clumsy and heavy lover — but he was also very good- 
looking, and one thing made up for the other. 

On the whole, he ^‘arrived.” 

He loved every woman in the world ; and this love 
was, in general, returned. 

But most of all he loved Miss Isabel Jay, known to 
her friends as Bosey ; and Bosey, apparently, did 
not love him. Her love was already taken up by some- 
thing else — a thing which she called Art.’^ 

He went to see her on the day of the telegram to 
Freshwater. A strip of black plaster concealed the 
scratch on his forehead. He was in the habit, even on 
visits of ceremony, of wearing a rough and heavy pea- 
jacket, such as pilots wear, with brass buttons, and 
thus attired he went out into the streets, a soft cap an 
his head. 

Could he have been recognized, he would have been 
lifted on the shoulders of tlie people, and carried to 
his destination. 

A servant ushered him into a very dainty inner room 
at Hampstead — a kind of studio-boudoir, in a Greek 
style, with Corinthian pillars, and flimsy saffron hang- 
ings. Miss Jay was rather an heiress, and lived with 
an old aunt in a stately solitude. There now she sat 
before an easel, with brush and palette. 

She was a lady of many accomplishments : of that 
unspeakably new” kind ; had written two novels of 
the problem ” sort ; she was a preacher of land- 


John Hardy Among Women 95 

nationalization ; she had painted one knows not how 
many pictures ; she was not yet nineteen ; and she 
was pretty. 

She had a substantial body, with a waist quite as 
large as that of Eve or Yenus. She wore her red- gold 
hair in coil upon coil of neglige richness about her head ; 
her eyes were green. 

In her large countenance there were intelligence and 
strong self-assurance. The hard bones of her corset 
were not more visible through her bodice than the 
Will of her character in her face. 

Oh, Mr. Hardy, I am glad!” she cried. ‘^Ah, 
and I have heard ! ” 

About the battle, and so on ? ” 

Yes, if “so on ” means yourself. How very brave 
you must he ! ” 

“ Englishmen are that, you know.” 

“ Are not a good many great cowards ? Men do so 
live in regions of fantasy ! Women are more prosaic — 
and clearer. Did you ever see an average English girl 
in the presence of a mouse, Mr. Hardy ? ” 

“ Girls are different,” said John. 

Bosey^s lips tightened. This was the kind of ancient 
point of view, purely male, to which she had the most 
touchy antipathy. 

“Oh, different of course,” she said, “in pose of 
nervous structure, and so on, and so on. But sub- 
stitute for the mouse the broker’s man, and you get at 
once a measure of the average Englishman’s courage.’^ 

“ Somebody has been misleading you,” said John. 
“ Englishmen are brave. Foreign people are afraid of 
things.” 

She looked at him with real pity, for his insularity, 
his unintelligence. 

“ But why misleading 9 Can it he that you think an 
ordinary girl incapable of observing for herself ? ” 

“I? Why if you only knew how much I like 
girls 

“ Merci ” 

“ Ah, now you are sarcastic.” 

“You are too shrewd,” 


96 The Yellow Danger 

1 never know whether you are making fun of me 
or not/’ 

‘^Well, what does it matter, Mr. John 

‘‘ But it is not nice to be made fun of by some one 
whom you like.” 

Keally like 9^^ 

You know ! ” 

You are too complimentary.” 

Like isn^’t the word. I think I like you better than 
any one in the whole world.” 

Now you are — what is the word ? — spooney.” 

I should be as happy as the Queen if you would 
only like me back.” 

“ Spooney ! ” 

‘‘You are not making fun ? ” 

“ Don’t be suspicious. You are too penetrating.” 

“ Well, what do you say ? ” 

“ To what ? ” 

“ To my liking you so much ? ” 

“ I can only say that it is distinctly spooney.” 

“ But do you like me back ? ” 

“Oh, If Well, yes, as 5^ou ask me. I like you — 
back. But in my own fashion, you understand ; not 
in that designingly spooney way.” 

“ I do not understand you,” said John. “ You are 
not like other girls.” 

“ Then logically you should not like me, since you 
like other girls so very very much.” 

“ I do, though. I like you much better than any of 
the others. You must not go by logic.” 

“ Ah, but I am nothing if not logical, Mr. Hardy.” 

“ But facts are facts, aren’t they ? If logic contra- 
dicts a fact, then you must throw the logic overboard 
to the sharks. I tell you I like you better than any one. • 
That is enough.” 

“ Enough for what — for me ? ” 

“ It should be.” 

“ But our human nature is more or less complex, I 
suppose ? Do you mean that the mere fact of your 
caring for me should be enough to lead me to corre- 
sponding actions ? That is wrong, you know, Listenj 


John Hardy Among Women Q7 

Mr. Hardy : we first met — liow long ago ? — about five 
weeks, I think — at Lady Sinclair's, you remember. 
And since then, how many times ? About six, per- 
haps. Well, I can see that you are used to easy 
conquests, you know ; and at once I detected that you 
wore laying yourself out to be captured by me, if I 
chose to take the trouble to capture you. But I did 
not choose ! I have other things to think of ; and it 
will be as much as I can possibly do, supposing I live 
for eighty years in tolerable health of body, to get 
through the little all I have in mind. I am not going 
to say that it is out of the question that some day I 
may not allow myself to be seduced into marriage by 
some man or other ; but, at the moment, it is a thing 
so remote from the actual strain of my thoughts, that, 
I assure you, it has quite the look of an impossibility. 
All the time, mind you, I am secretly alive to the 
fact that it must be very nice to be petted and kissed 
by charming lips ; but it is not, you see, precisely what 
I have chosen for myself. You know about scorning 
delights and living laborious days,” don^’t you ? Well, 
that is my way. So I beg, once and for all, that you 
will be more sensible with respect to me for the future, 
Mr. John.” 

Bosey delivered this lecture with brush uplifted. 
She bent and gave a touch to the picture. 

As the last words passed her lips, a sigh escaped 
Hardy, and this sentence, barely whispered : 

You are the mate for me, by the Lord ! ” 

She heard him and cried : 

Mr. Hardy ! ” 

His lips were pressed together. But as he was the 
firmest, so he was the most uncouth, of lovers. He said : 

‘^lam going to China in a day or two. I should 
like to marry you before I go.” 

She broke into ripples of evil laughter. 

“Not so soon ! Not so soon ! ” she cried, angry now. 

“ When I come back,” he said simply. 

She looked into his face in unfeigned surprise. 

“ Have I not told you ? ” she cried, almost with 
alarm. What do you mean r I am quite a free 

7 


98 The Yellow Danger 

subject, you know. This is not Turkey ; this is not 
— Peru. Do you mean that because you are to be the 
national hero, and so on ? Oh, but that is in rather 
queer taste, then ! Have I not answered you ? 

“ I love you ! 

I don^t care ! 

I do ! 

You do not ! ’’ 

Ah, you don’t know ! ” 

You are to keep away ! ” 

1 shall have you yet ! ” 

Have me ! ” 

if Yes.” 

‘‘Silly boy.” 

“ Give me one ! ” 

“Don’t come ” 

“Just one.” 

“What ?” 

“Kiss.” 

“Ur ! — silly. Do — go — away. This is too absurd ! ” 

She stamped. The dry rose-leaves had brushed her 
hot cheek. So far had passion led Hardy. Then he 
started — to this point he had never dared, on his own 
initiative. A shock of scarlet shyness possessed him. 

“ Ah, now I have presumed,” he said, stammering. 
“Forgive me — I will go ” 

“ AVell, it is of no consequence, Mr. Hardy,” she 
answered, calm already, holding out her hand, “ but 
perhaps you had better go.” 

“Well, then — But you understand that I am go- 
ing to China ? ” 

“Perfectly. I believe that you will find the Chinese 
charming artists.” 

“ While I am away you will not be marrying some 
one else ? ” 

“Kot I. You may be confident that I shall remain 
self-sufficient. Even the new National Darling, you 
see, cannot tempt me.” 

“ But you will think sometimes of a poor sailor.” 

“ The newspapers, you know, will remind me of the 
poor sailor.” 


99 


John Hardy Among Women 

Good-by. I am going.” 

‘‘ Then go.” 

When I come back from China, I shall have yon.” 

“You said that before — whatever having me may 
mean : and I said — No.” 

“But I shall.” 

“ Well, we wonT discuss the matter now. I am 
sorry for you, you know, because you look — epate. 
But you will soon get over it, and it will do you good. 
You were over-confident, you know. Will you say 
good-by, now ? ” 

“ May I kiss your hand ? ” 

“Nonsense ! you are just like a child.” 

“ May I ?” 

“ Well, if that is any comfort to you ” 

He kissed her hand with old-fashioned ceremonial, 
caught up his cap, and was gone. 

Had he been more successful, he would have walked 
straight home, and to bed, and so made the course of 
history otherwise. 

As it was, he went wandering through a number of 
streets in a desultory mood, not knowing whither he 
went. 

Night had fallen. 

He had a deep radical love for this girl. He said to 
himself, walking himself - tired : “I will have her, I 
will have her, by the Lord ” 

Suddenly his own name caught his eye. He was 
in front of the Palace Theater of Varieties. 

London was alight. The streets thronged with 
people. The fa9ades of the Palace were arrayed with 
galaxies of jets. 

There, on a board, the ink still wet, appeared the 
attraction of the night : 

MISS LOTTIE COLLINS 
Will Appear To-night 
In Her New Patriotic Song, 

Entitled : 

“ BRAVO, JOHN HARDY I ” 


loo The Yellow Danger 

The song had been composed, learned, orchestrated, 
and rehearsed, all in the course of a single day. 

He stood looking at the placard, smiling. He felt in 
his pocket ; he had some money. It was about time 
for the entertainment to begin. He went in. 

His mind was, in some of its aspects, as unstable as 
water. It shifted like phosphorescences in the dark. 
All forms of pleasure, especially, had great power to 
deflect and draw him. He could be won from grave 
to gay by the simplest means. He had not only the 
soul of a hero but the mind of a baby. 

He remembered that one could smoke and drink in 
music-halls. By heaven ! he would make a night of 
it. If there was blame, the blame was Bosey Jay’s. 

He never took the dry-land quite seriously. To him 
it was shore ’’ — rather a foreign place — a place for 
‘^sprees.” 

' He put his hand into his pocket again, and looked 
at what money he had. There was plenty. Xow 
then for Bacchus and Terpsichore ; wine, and song, 
and — Woman ? 

Yearly all the afternoon, at this very hour, a stream 
of carriages, containing ecstatic photograph-hunters, 
Mr. Goschen, Lords of the Admiralty, pressmen rabid 
for an interview, distinguished persons, were moving 
toward, and aAvay from, the door of Yo. 11a Cavendish 
Square. John Hardy was not at home. 

He found himself in one of the pit-stalls ’’ during 
the performance of a ventriloquist. In a few minutes 
he had provided himself with cigars, and a goodly 
tumbler of spirit-and-soda-water. 

A girl, sitting next to him, touched a companion on 
the other side of her — a soldier, whose name was John 
Brabant — and whispered : 

‘‘Just look at him ; isn’t he handsome 

Her name was Ada Seward. She was the woman 
who, alone in the world, had been able to melt the ice 
of Dr. Yen How. 

She was a small creature, with skin of a warm yel- 
lowish color, and little quaint Chinese eyes, and light 
hair wdth the whitest tinge of red in it ; not per- 


John Hardy Among Women loi 

haps pretty, but with some unspeakable attraction of 
piquancy about her uncommon, saucy little face, 
which had caused her to receive twelve offers of mar- 
riage before she was twenty. Her friends declared that 
she was the living image of Miss Marie Tempest, the 
‘^Geisha’’ prima donna. In figure she was typically 
English. 

She was perishing to speak a word to the sweet pink 
face by her side, to its delicate aristocratic lines. At 
last, during a loud song consigning the German nation 
to perdition, she found her chance. 

“Now, young gentleman,’’ she said, “that is my 
dress, please ; it won’t be fit to look at to-morrow if 
you throw any more brandy-and-soda over it.” 

John gave her the sweetest smile she had ever be- 
held on mortal lips, and said : 

“Pardon me.” 

At the same time, he looked into her face, and liked it. 

The waiter had already borne him three whispering 
glasses of beverage. 

“ May I ? ” he said ; “ here, waiter — may I order for 
you and your companion ? ” 

John Brabant bowed low with a hearty “ Thank you, 
sir I ” 

But Ada, who was quite three or four grades higher 
in the socal scale than he, being in his company only 
owing to old associations, nudged the soldier deprecat- 
ingly, objecting to the obligation. 

It was too late, however. The offer had been ac- 
cepted. In a few minutes John Hardy and Ada were 
talking — Ada laughing, John smiling. Brandy-and- 
soda became the order of the day. Hardy had soon a 
good deal more than enough. 

The audience was in a queer mood, impatient, in- 
tolerant. There was neither an empty seat nor a spare 
inch of standing-room in the place ; but the Peoples’s 
interest was all bent upon one future point in the 
entertainment — the entrance of Miss Collins — and 
meanwhile they took not the least pains to conceal 
their indifference. There was something rowdy in the 
tone of the assembly. 


102 The Yellow Danger 

By Jove, I am liking you ! 

His lips were at her ear. 

Ah, now, that’s the drink talking, not you.” 

‘^The drink? Nonsense!” I am, really. Are 
you liking me back ? ” 

Ah, that would be telling ! ” 

You are ! ” 

Go away with you I Why, I have only just seen 
you ! ” 

That is of no importance.” 

Oh, isn’t it, though I ” 

Don’t be a cruel girl. Here, waiter ” 

Do you know what I think you are — from your 
ways ? ” 

No ; tell me.” 

You tell me ; let me see if I am right. What are 
you ? ” 

‘‘You mean my profession ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“ I am a sailor.” 

Had Ada’s ears been more delicately nurtured, she 
would have detected there, half-drunk though Hardy 
was, a very slight intonation of imperial arrogance. 

“ A sailor ? You ? Go on ! Show me your 
hands.” 

“ Oh, my hands are not very rough, I admit. But 
still — I am a sailor. You may believe me — in the 
navy, you know.” 

“ I see. Well, do you know I had an idea of some- 
thing like that ? A sailor ! Yes, that is what you are. 
You come to the point so soon, don’t you ? — like sailors 
do.” 

“ Well, but do you like me back, now ? ” 

“No, thank you. No sailors for me. They are 
here to-day, and gone to morrow.” 

“ That is because they must. You can’t punish 
them for doing their duty to their country, can you ? ” 

“ The country is one thing, but girls have got to 
look after themselves, you see.” 

“You are too practical. 

I have got to be.” 


John Hardy Among Women 103 

But you will have me for your sweetheart ? 

Perhaps I will, and perhaps I won’t. It de- 
pends.” 

Here was an Achievement in Indefiniteness. John 
Hardy fled from the mental indeterminateness in which 
the answer left him, by turning to his glass for a 
drink. 

The shifters of the indicating numbers removed the 
card 7, and put up the card 8 ; 8 ” meant Lottie 

Collins. A murmur of expectancy rumored through 
the building. The air grew electric. Every one 
knew that great things were coming. Already the 
nerves of the audience were strung high and tense. 

That is very indefinite.” 

^‘I can’t help it. Wait and see how we feel to- 
morrow morning.” 

Only say now that you like me.” 

Well, suppose I say — yes. No, no — it’s too 
stupid ! ” 

Sweet of you, Nell ! Is your name Nell ? ” 

Yes. Hoav on earth did you know ? It is my 
second name. They call me Ada.”’ 

“ Ada — what ? ” 

Ada Seward.” 

I shall call you Nell.” I like that better.” 

And what is yours ? ” 

^^John.” 

Ada was smitten by Coincidence. On each side of 
her was a John ” — one a soldier, the other a sailor. 
She was the link which united and disparted Her 
Majesty’s forces. 

John — what?” 

Here John paused. He was now in a high state of 
fuddlement, but was capable of remembering that his 
name was on placards all about the town, and about to 
be proclaimed by ‘^No. 8.” 

‘‘John — what ?” came the question again. 

But Miss Collins rescued him. There was the rattle 
of a drawn-up curtain — an intense “ Sh — h — h ” swept 
through the building— and at once there ^ followed a 
clap and cry of applause as the whole audience leapt 


104 


The Yellow Danger 

to its feet. Miss Collins had bounded on to the stage, 
be-draperied from head to heel in the Union Jack. 

The air was electric. Every heart bounded in every 
bosom. John Hardy’s right arm had stolen and twined 
round Ada Seward’s left, his fingers kneading and 
palpating the soft fiesh of her forearm. With his left 
hand he lifted the glass to his lips. He alone, on the 
subject of himself, remained careless. 

Amid a dead silence the artiste lifted up her arm, 
and so for a minute stood. Then she gave a sharp, 
shrewd twist to her wrist, and passionately shouted — 
Bravo, John Hardy ! ” 

And again the audience leapt to its feet, with howls 
of rapture, which lasted five minutes. 

The boxes were packed with some quite distinguished 
people. 

At last there was quiet. The artiste began to sing. 
The tune was simple and stirring — the words were lik^e 
raw rum, as crude and as strong : 

When the Allied fleet came over, and passed the Straits of 
Dover, 

They thought they’d have it all their little way ; 

But a knowing little cardy (they call him Johnnie Hardy), 
He crashed them his Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-aye. 

Chorus 

Oh ! isn’t he a jolly little boy ? 

And don't he know his little way about ! 

When he handed in his card, and the French saw 
“ Johnnie Hard,” 

Lord ! transformation scene, you bet, and wild, dis- 
tracted rout ! 

Tliere’s a little sailor lad, and his eyes are mild and sad, 

And you’d think he’d not one blooming word to say ! 

But holy Moses guard ye (he’s known as Johnnie Hardy) 
When he crashes his Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-aye ! 

Chorus 

Oh ! isn’t he a joy, that jolly sailor-boy ? 

And don't he know his little way about I 
When he winks his little eye, you may just lie down 
and die. 

For his red right hand is thunder, and his eyes shoot 
lightnings out ! 


John Hardy Among Women 105 

By this time the audience, wrought to a high excite- 
ment, had caught the lilt of the tune. When Miss 
Collins repeated the last chorus, the house vociferated 
it, utterly drowning her voice in the wheeling tumult 
which now prevailed. She pretended to retire, loaded 
with the masses of flowers showered upon her from the 
boxes ; but at once returned at the call of the audi- 
ence. She sang : 

Ah, boldly they came over ; and they crossed the Straits of 

Dover ; 

But “ Hardy ! ” was the answer England hurled that day ; 
And Johnnie winked his eye, and they all lay down to die, 

When he crashed them his Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-aye I 

Chorus 

So isn’t he just bricks, with his little crafty tricks ? 

And don’t he know his little way about ! 

For his head is crisp with curls, he’s a devil with the 
girls, 

But ten thousand times a devil when the Dogs of War 
are out I 

Once more she repeated the chorus, the audience 
taking it clamorously up. Then she tripped from the 
stage. But the house roared after her with the frenzy 
of men parting with their last earthly hope. She had 
now utterly mesmerized and enthralled them. The 
moment was ecstatic with an electrical tension im- 
possible to describe. They bawled, they yelled, they 
stood up straining forward with gesticulations, tears 
pouring down many faces, handkerchiefs waving. At 
last she reappeared. She had a verse in reserve. She 
sang : — 

Old England is the mother, and each of you a brother, 

To this stern brow that bids the world obey ; 

And now we shan’t be tardy (God bless you, little Hardy !) 

In crashing more Ta-ra-ras-Boom-de-aye ! 

Chorus 

So isn’t he a joy, this British sailor-boy ? 

And don^t he know his little way about ! 

He couldn’t hurt a fly, but he’s tricky, and he’s sly, 

And he makes the sky to redden, and the roaring deep 
to spout I 


io6 The Yellow Danger 

She rendered this last verse with almost distracted 
verve and heat; and before proceeding to give the 
chorus a second time stretched forth her arms, and in 
a fierce tone of command, cried : Stand all ! ” 

The audience sprang upright yelling the male part of 
it uncovering. The singing of the last chorus burst 
forth universally. And there too, was Hardy, hope- 
lessly drunk now, with an arm round Ada Seward^s arm 
he, too, standing, he too — with an empty glass bran- 
dished in his left hand — laughing and singing : 

So isn’t he a joy, this British sailor-boy ? 

And doifCt he know his little way about ! 

He couldn’t hurt a fly, but he’s tricky, and he’s sly, 

And he makes the sky to redden, and the roaring deep to 
spout ! 

Ho sooner had Miss Collins disappeared, amid an un- 
paralleled tempest of sound, than the audience scat- 
tered. They were capable of no more emotion for that 
night. 

Hardy found himself in the street, leaning on Ada 
Seward’s arm. They were alone. Where the soldier 
Brabant had vanished to, neither Brabant himself nor 
any one else knew. 

‘^Shee cheers for ole Helson!” cried John Hardy. 

Ha ! ha ! ha I — ole Helson. Shee cheers, by the 
Lord ” 

Come now, be good,’’ said Ada. Get into this 
cab, will you ? ” 

Where you live ? ” 

She gave him the Pattison address, and impressed it 
upon him. 

** Mind, I shall expect to hear from you,” she said, 
as she shoved him into the cab, and kissed him. 

John going home in the cab, murmured, with faint- 
ing, intoxicated breath : 

‘‘ Bosey ! Bosey ! I shall have you yet, — by the 
Lord ” 

And Ada waited in vain. The next morning he had 
forgotten her address. 

But he remembered — her name^ 


CHAPTER XL ' 

JOHK HARDY AMOHG THE HATIOHS. 

The next day John Hardy shut himself up in a fit 
of sulky moroseness, flatly refusing to see any one. 
The day after that was Sunday, and on Sunday evening 
he was at Freshwater. 

His yacht was ready to sail. 

He had in his breast-pocket letters of credit from the 
bankers of his solicitors to business houses in Paris, 
Berlin, Petersburg, Pekin, and Shanghai. 

He had also with him a French dictionary, a German 
dictionary, a bible, and a very elementary French con- 
versation book. 

He had also with him a portrait of Bosey Jay, which 
he had obtained that morning from Lady Sinclair. 

He had also with him a ColFs revolver. 

He had also with him a shilling map of Xorthern 
China, and four sorts of foreign coin. 

As he stepped from the train from Newport at Fresh- 
water, he saw a late Sunday-edition placard announcing 
that 100,000 English troops were about embark for Havre 
for a French invasion ; and this made his heart rejoice. 

The English weighed anchor at 8 p.m. He was 
under requisition by letter to attend at the Admiralty 
the next day, but he took not the least notice of it, 
leaving it to be supposed that he had set out before re- 
ceiving the requisition. He was a free subject, he said 
to himself. 

Before sunrise on Wednesday morning he arrived 
at the old town of San Sebastian on the north Spanish 
coast. 

He had taken the precaution to bring no linen marked 


io8 The Yellow Danger 

with his name. He intended to travel as an American 
citizen, under the name of Petersen. From San Sebas- 
tian he sent back the yacht to England, and at once 
proceeded with a small trunk by train to Bayonne, 
thence to Bordeaux, and thence by way of Angoul4me, 
Poitiers, and Tours to the French capital. He reached 
the Gare d^Orleans on the Thursday morning at 9.30, 
nearly a week after the battle of Shoreham, and pro- 
ceeded westward to a hotel in the neighborhood of the 
Madeleine, reporting himself in the hotel bulletin as 
having traveled from Spain. 

The first thing tliat happened to him was that he fell 
in love with that charming courtezan, Paris. 

He had been so exceptionally and scrupulously in- 
sular, that he had always shrunk from leaving England, 
except in the ships on which he served. Hence he 
knew some of the ports of Europe very well, but had 
never been to Paris. Now was revealed to him the fdle 
dejoie of the cities of the earth, the pure feminine, as 
queer, and treacherous, and lovely, and indescribable, 
as woman. Whoso truly loves woman will not escape 
her witchery. She is the divine sinner. 

Hardy intended to leave Paris at three o’clock ; but 
he put off his departure till the next day ; and mean- 
time he got into trouble. 

The news of the disaster to the allied fleet had four 
days since reached France. ■ But the whole thing was 
incredible ; it was not believed, or believed with only 
half the mind ; and for this reason : that the news had 
come by the roundabout way of the Mackay-Bennet 
cable — from New York ! What lent some color of truth 
to the report was the incomprehensible fact that the 
Centre- Amiral and General de Eosney had sent no de- 
spatch-boat to announce the landing of the troops on 
English soil. Yet the nation refused to believe the 
incredible. They waited, with suspended mind, with 
bated breath, wildly hoping. 

In the impossible contingency of their fleet having 
been defeated, they argued that at least one ship would 
have escaped to bring them the news. But no ship 
had come : the fleet could not be defeated. 


John Hardy Among the Nations 109 

The fact was ships had escaped — three liners 

and two battleships. But of the three liners one was 
towing another at the rate of about half a knot an hour, 
and the third was just forging through the water against 
a head wind under sail alone. The two battleships 
were German, and in sorry plight. One with a broken 
screw, and one with disabled engines, they were making 
their slow way north-eastward with a vague outlook 
toward Bremerhafen in the mind’s eye. 

Of the British ships not one craft had remained afloat. 

However, on the morning of Hardy’s arrival in 
Paris, one of the three liners drifted on to the French 
coast, near St Valery en Caux, having on board an 
infantry brigade, and a crew, perishing with hunger, 
on the verge of frenzy with thirst. By noon Paris 
knew. 

Then there was hrouhaha and Uoulalalu, or, as we 
say, ructions.” 

Paris, in her rages, as in all else, is like a woman. 
She tears her finery and ribbons to shreds ; she foams 
at the mouth ; her hair is all over the place ! ” 

Her last exuberance had taken the shape of the Drey- 
fus riots. Monsieur Zola had been the scapegoat. He 
had been declared a deg mere hy the University ; 
had been regarded as a ‘‘ cas ” by the alienists ; had been 
hopelessly caricatured ; was regarded as a man done 
for. 

He waited. On this Thursday morning he had his 
revenge. 

Under the great statue of France in the Place de la 
Bastille he stood, and the crowd around him spread far 
up the avenues, leading into the Place. He was recog- 
nized : G^est M. Zola ! ” And he harangued them. 

He had always been known as a very decent orator. 
And he three times used the word traliison.^^ 

This word treason” has a strange glamour for the 
French mind, carrying with it an extraordinary hint of 
the blackest infamy. 

It was a word which Paris could ill bear at that mo- 
ment. It simply made the crowd a kennel 6f rabid 
dogs. Already in other parts — in the Oite^ the Place 


110 


The Yellow Danger 


de la Concorde, la Vilette — excited throngs were rush- 
ing riotously about the rues and avenues and boule- 
vards, without the incentive of M. Zola^s “ traliisonJ* 
And in the midst of M. Zola^’s crowd, in the deadliest 
peVil, stood John Hardy. 

' On his forehead was the strfp of plaster which covered 
the scratch received at Shoreham. 

By some sure intuition, the French know an English- 
man at once ; they say of you at a glance, II est art'- 
And Hardy was very much of an Englishman. 
If ever human boy enjoyed himself, it was he at that 
moment. He loved a row for its own sake, and here 
was the sweetest of all rows — a French row. 

What added a touch of exquisiteness to his enjoyment 
was his inner knowledge of the muse of the row. 
These children had dashed themselves like impotent 
waves against the rock of England, and were now as- 
tonished to find that rock was hard, and could shatter 
them. 

John could hardly understand a word of the ha- 
rangue, though he once heard his own name, but he 
guessed what it was all about, and he saw it in the dis- 
torted faces of the people. He stood looking up into 
the startling eyes of the orator, q^uietly smiling. 

At the first sounds of uproar he had run from his 
hotel, and followed a crowd eastward. No thought of 
his danger occurred to him. His attitude of mind to- 
wards the people among whom he found himself was 
one of quiet and assured dominancy. 

M. Zola was about to complete his oration, and the 
mob to rush with some indefinitely hostile purpose to- 
ward the Elysee, when Hardy felt himself touched with 
a deliberate tap on the shoulder. 

He looked around and up. 

He was confronted by an extremely foreign-looking 
person, a middle-aged man to judge by his face, but 
with a head of quite white long hair, and a splendid 
white beard and moustache. He wore a gray, broad- 
brimmed, soft-felt sombrero sort of hat, which drooped 
on one side like a lady’s Gainsborough. But the part 
of him that attracted attention was his two hands ; 


John Hardy Among the Nations in 

they were simply two constellations of bulky flashing 
jewels : on each of the eight fingers being several 
huge rings, glittering with every variety of luminous 
stone. 

His face was very excited. But he said to Hardy, 
with perfect polished politeness, lifting his sombrero : 

Ah, monsieur a marclie sur mon pied ! ” 

Je ne comprends,’* said John. 

‘‘ Ah ! it is as I thought. Monsieur is, then, Eng- 
lish.” 

That is so,” answered John incautiously. 

^‘^Ah! English — good. Very-well — all-right. I 

wished to say that monsieur has marched on my foot.” 

J ohn knew that this was a lie. But he made a con- 
cession ; with a condescending nod and smile he 
said : 

“ Merci ! ” 

He nieant to say Pardon/’ But merci and par- 
don,” somehow, were very much mixed up in his 
mind ; he often used one instead of the other. 

The very-foreign person said with a bow : 

I cannot help to think that the action was inten- 
tioned on the part of monsieur.” 

Go away, will you ? ” said John Hardy. 

^^But monsieur has not answered my question.” 

Yes, I have. Be good enough to go to the de- 
vil.^’ 

‘^To the ? Very-well — all right.” And at 

once he lifted his voice high, interrupting the orator, 
crying out : 

Voila, messieurs — un anglais — de la Marine an- 
glaise ” 

John had committed the indiscretion of wearing his 
mariner pea-jacket, with brass buttons engraved with 
anchors. 

There arose an outcry round him. A commotion 
spreading wider through the crowd, like circles round a 
pebble-splash, had him for its center. M. Zola ceased 
to hold forth. 

They pressed round stiflingly. Hardy began to 
cough feebly. He pushed back with his elbow a 


112 


The Yellow Danger 

rough-looking, brazen-eyed fellow in an ouvrier^s 
smock. But his effort to free himself was poor in 
force. In a moment or two his jacket was rent off 
him, and a cruel fist smote him heavily in the jaw. He 
saw clearly now that he was on the point of being torn 
to pieces. 

He wondered what he could do ; and having calmly 
measured the situation, and seeing no chance of escape, 
he broke into a laugh at his own expense, calling out 
loudly : 

‘^Cockers! Cockers 

By cockers ” he meant to call them ‘‘pigs.” 

In a moment he was on the ground on his back. 

But whatever force it is which underlies the world 
had this frail and dauntless lad in its keeping for the 
time being. He was necessary. 

A diversion was caused by a loud pair of lungs, which 
cried : 

Mais, messieurs, ecoutez-moi, ecoutez-moi ” 

It was the very-foreign person, who was also vehe- 
mently interposing his utmost bodily vigor to the 
rescue of John. 

“You know me — you knoAV me all — listen to me — I 

am Edrapol ” 

C'est Edrapol! Edrapol/^* 

Instantly the rumor spread far, amid vives. Edrapol, 
the duellist, the Bulgarian, the world-renowned master 
of the pistol and the rapier ; it was he. 

He explained. The English sailor had committed 
upon him a personal outrage. He begged — it was his 
simple right — that the life of the miscreant should be 
spared to make the reparation which was only his, 
EdrapoBs, plain due. The stranger’s death was certain 
either way, but, in short, messieurs, the other way was 
more neat — more convenahle. 

And so Hardy was, as it were, torn from the rough 
hands which had seized him, Edrapol’s popularity in 
Paris was paramount. The mob, led by Zola, rushed 
westwards. Hardy and Edrapol were alone. 

The escrimeur, bowing, handed his card to Hardy, 
and requested a return of the favor. 


John Hardy Among the Nations li.l 

What for ? ’’ said John. I have no card.^’ 

But monsieur will meet me ? ” 

AVhere ? 

^‘In the Bois, monsieur.” 

‘‘ But what for ? ” 

‘MVliy, to fight, monsieur.” 

‘‘You don't mean a duel ? ” 

“Why, naturally, monsieur.” 

“I see. But an old man like you ? ” 

“Not too old, monsieur, perhaps! Does monsieur 
then hesitate ? ” 

“ I do. It is absurd.” 

“ Monsieur is, of course, sensible to the interpreta- 
tion which one would naturally put upon any hesita- 
tion from his part ? ” 

“No. I am not sensible of it. What interpreta- 
tion ? ” 

“That monsieur is a coward.” 

“ Well, but I am not one, interpret as you please.” 
“ Still, monsieur, I say the natural interpretation. 
I am sure you will realize my point of view if you rec- 
ollect that I have the reputation of being the deadliest 
swordsman in Europe.” 

“ Is that so ? Oh, I didn't know.” 

“ Now I think monsieur realizes my point of view ? ” 
“I do rather.” 

“ And monsieur will now fight ? ” 

“ I don't mind. What with ? ” 

“All that will be arranged for us by others, mon- 
sieur. If you will give me your name, your address, 
and the address of a friend to whom I may send a 
friend of mine ” 

“ I have no friend worth mentioning here. Send 
your friend to me personally.” 

He gave his real name and his address, and turned 
away from the bowing figure before him. He set out 
for his hotel. 

Later in the day he found himself in front of the 
Chambre des Deputes, and dropped in with a stream 
of the public. 

A glance showed a full house — Zola, Papa Sardou, 

8 


114 


The Yellow Danger 

the young novelist, Pierre Louys — and the Parisian 
pressmen overflowing into the foreign press. 

Below, no dull uniformity, as in the House of Com- 
mons, but variety, colors, races. There is M. Grenier, 
the Mussulman deputy, his white Arabian burnous, near 
the “passage of the Left.'^ The center is packed 
— Kepublicans and Opportunists — Government-sup- 
porters these. The Bight is the stronghold of the 
Clericals and Legitimists. To the Left, the Socialists. 

In the center of the circle, the tribune — a pulpit ; 
and behind the tribune, but towering above it, the 
throne of the President of the chamber, M. Brisson. 

M. Brisson wears no wig like our Speaker ; but his 
patriarchal beard is full of awe. 

M. Hanotaux, in the Tribune, is explaining that 
“ nothing in the actual situation so far is of importance 
as regards the annihilation of the British Empire in 
the near future ! ” 

Applause from Center and Eight. Queer sounds 
from the Left. There is going to be a row. 

“ It is a coalition whose very name is Victory. 

“It has already been defeated ! ” yells a voice from 
the Left. (Huge hubbub ; M. Clovis Hugues, the 
long-haired poet, screaming something ecstatic through 
the din.) 

President Brisson rises. He bids them recollect that 
Prance looks to them for an example of calm and sage 
deliberation. Deliberation calme etsage!” 

Hardy understands the words, because they are like 
English words, and he throws a gasp of laughter be- 
hind his head, crying : 

“ By the Lord . . . \” 

M. Hanotaux pToceeds, though interrupted. His 
peroration is a touching appeal to the honor, the glory 
of France. He descends. 

From the Left a cry : “ Jaures ! Jaures ! ” And 
the young leader of the Socialists, large, blonde, swings 
himself up to the Tribune. “ Hanotaux is an infame. 
France has been made the tool of Eussia and Ger- 
many ! ’’ President Brisson calls the speaker to order. 
But there is deaf obstinacy in the curve of the broad 


John Hardy Among the Nations iig 

back turned towards the President. He makes M. de 
Mun, the orator of the Catholics, the object of his 
bitterest thrusts. M. de Mun retorts. The two men 
gdare. Like a ball flung from hand to hand, so the 
stinging and witty retort darts quickly to and back be- 
tween them. The Socialists egg on their man with 
cries, the Eight their man. 

A voice from the Right : You are the paid spy of 
the British Rothschilds ! ” This from M. Carnet, a 
little fat man, a mere sphere of flesh. You are a 
liar and a coward ! roars M. Jaur^s. 

There is a struggle on the front right benches. It is 
Carnet held back % his friends. The air is electrical. 
The journalists in their cribs stand and yell their own 
various views of the world. 

Suddenly, from the left, a flgure reels through a 
blind and drunken curve. He dodges the stray 
members on the floor, wheels, and fetches Carnet a 
blow. 

Ha ! sits the wind so, then ? Hardy chortles, rear- 
ing with glee. In the passage leading from the Right 
to the lobbies there follows a scrimmage, from which a 
flgure darts up the Tribune ; Carnet has given Jaur^s 
a blow under the ear. 

Then all is chaos. Everybody is rushing everywhere. 
Wherever any one sees a head, he drives his fist at it, 
yelling. The whole Chamber rolls and tumbles in a 
tumult. They are like bits of vegetables wheeling pro- 
miscuously in a boiling and bubbling pot. President 
Brisson puts on his tall hat as a sign that the seance 
is at an end. The melee forces itself into the lobbies. 
Outside there is a clash ; a sound of pistols. John 
Hardy has seen — France. 

Meantime, all over the city the Garrison of Paris was 
in the streets, trying to clear them of the rioters. 
J^'ight fell. 

At , eight o’clock a gentleman waited upon Hardy 
from Edrapol. But he could not speak English, and 
the interview was a fiasco. Hardy sat down and wrote 
the following letter, which he handed to EdrapoPs 
second : — 


ii6 The Yellow Danger 

Sir, — This is to let you know that after considera- 
tion I have changed mind about the duel for the pres- 
ent. If you like to think I am afraid of your fine 
swordsmanship, you can, but that is not really the 
case. On the contrary, when I tell you my motives, 
you ought to consider the writing of this letter, if any- 
thing, a rather brave and worthy act on my part. The 
fact is, I am a servant of Her Majesty the Queen, and 
have already, in my way, been able to do some good 
for my country. As you know, England wants men 
just now, and that is why, after consideration, I do not 
see my way to expose my life wantonly, while things 
are as they are, for a mere trifie. I am sorry to have 
to disappoint you, and myself too, in our little duel ; 
but that is how I look at it. However, I make you 
this promise : that on the day this present war is over 
I will seek you out, in whatever country you may be, 
and present myself before you for the purpose of get- 
ting through with our little duel ; and on that you may 
rely. I keep your card. — I remain, sir, your servant, 

John Hardy. 

The amount of self-suppression, of noble patriotism, 
which the writing of this simply- worded letter implied 
for the arrogant spirit of Hardy may be assumed : when 
it was finished, he gave it, with a curl of the lip, to 
the ambassador of Edrapol. 

The next morning he left Paris, and reached Aix in 
the evening, whence he proceeded to Berlin. To 
Berlin the bare news of the disaster had been fiashed 
the day before ; but it was not until the next morning 
that more detailed accounts came from the two ruined 
battleships, now arrived at Bremerhafen. Hardy found 
the Unter den Linden boulevard quite a Babel with the 
bawling of the news-vendors ; it was rapidly being filled 
by groups rushing thither as to the main channel of 
intelligence from all directions of the city, while the 
Foreign Office in the AYilhelm-Strasse was being besieged 
by a great crowd clamoring to hear the truth, and 
^reading away to the Schloss, where, it was said, the 
Emperor was closeted with his Chancellor and his Chief 


John Hardy Among the Nations 117 

of the Staff. The humor of the crowd was sullen ; but it 
needed only the appearance of Wilhelm, accompanied 
by the Empress, on the front balcony of the Schloss, 
to turn discouragement into elation. Wilhelm sud- 
denly drew his sword and flashed it in the sunlight. 
Then there was joy. I^o people cheer like Germans. 
Demonstration was their specialitL They excelled in 
looking pleased. Their /o We was to claim the Future 
with verve and assurance, whether it really belonged 
to them or not. Hardy was in the midst of the crowd 
round the Schloss. He saw the flash of Wilhelm^’s 
sword. An hour later he was with a throng cheering 
itself hoarse in front of the Austrian Embassy, opposite 
the old home of M. Benedetti, so closely associated 
with the outbreak of Germany’s last war. The Austrian 
Minister had unexpectedly appeared before the people, 
who now went wild with delight, a large area of the 
crowd presently starting to sing old Schneckenburger’s 

Waclit am Rhein,” Hardy observed every gesture, 
and every expression of every face which came within 
his range of vision, and he said to himself : 

So much for mein Herr, then.” 

He reached Konigsberg the next morning, and thence 
went on to Vilna, Pskov, and St. Petersburg. ^ 

Everywhere there was commotion, excitement, 
crowds, posters, mobil. 

In the Hevski Prospekt at St. Petersburg, in the 
Izak Platz, on the ‘‘English Quay,” there were throngs, 
proclamations, printed heads of the Tsar, and every 
open space was gaudy with banners. The town, how- 
ever, was fairly quiet, though there were some arrests 
of Nihilists. The Kussians were the most English of 
the Continentals, or tended to be, when once their 
races became homogeneous. They had the ruralness, 
and something of the Stoicism, the Puritanism, and 
the nimbleness of the British ; with this was mixed a 
certain Orientalism — a vermilion line in the gray of 
their character. 

At his hotel John found an ostler of the Simbirsk 
Province, an adventurous and cosmopolitan man, who 
had been a sailor trading between Hull and Copen- 


ii8 The Yellow Danger 

hagen for some years. He understood English. He 
struck up a friendship with John, and told him his 
history. John offered him 500 roubles if he would un- 
dertake to deliver a letter by hand in England, setting 
out at once. And this offer Ivan accepted. 

The letter which John wrote was as follows : — 

My dear Bobbie, — Here I am in St. Petersburg 
after passing through France and Germany, and just 
about to set out to get by the Trans-Siberian Railway 
over all that great continent of Northern Asia to Vla- 
divostok on the other side of the world, and so, please 
God, to Pekin, and my ship. 

‘‘ Dear Bobbie, this is what I have to tell you, and you 
can write a letter to the Times yourself, so as to let 
the country know what little I have to say. The 
French are about to mass four Army Corps in the di- 
rection of Havre, and I don't think that for the present 
we can do much with them there, though later on, 
when we get our pecker up a bit, 1 know that ten 
Frenchmen won’t be able to hold out against one Eng- 
lishman. The German Cock-of-the-walk has tele- 
graphed for the King of Saxony, and Prince Albrecht 
of Prussia, his Field-Marshals, and for Court Walder- 
see. Chief of the General Staff. Seven of his twenty 
Army Corps are mobilizing — namely, the ist, or East 
Prussian ; the 17th, or West Prussian ; the 12th, 
Kingdom of Saxony ; and the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th, 
belonging to Brandenburg, the Province of Prussian 
Saxony, Posen, and Silesia respectively. But whether 
all these are intended to go to help the French, or to 
defend his own northern coast, or what, I do not know, 
not knowing much about fighting on terra firma. 

AYell, dear Bobbie, I have seen my full of the people 
with whom I have been. I saw some splendid fisticuffs 
in the French House of Commons, and no end of fun ; 
and some very excited people in Germany and Russia. 
My opinion of the French is, that they are very nice 
people, the French women especially. But they are 
old, they are no good any more, they have not got any 
youth and go left in them j you know what they are 


John Hardy Among the Nations iiQ 

like, Bobbie ? Like patte (sic) de foie graSy nice but 
tainted. They are over-civilized, like an old dowager 
that’s not fit for anything, but to make love-matches. 
France is no good any more, except for ornament and 
for tourists to come to. For energy she has got vivac- 
ity, and for nerve, verve — like a frivolous old leau ! 
The world has nothing to expect from her. They are 
wonderfully ahead of us in some things — their lower 
class especially is far far ahead of ours in everything — 
but they do not move, their legs are heavy with age. 
The future belongs to us. At the rate we are going 
now, we shall soon have all that France has, and a 
thousand thousand times more, for we shall have youth 
and energy and vastness as well. The Germans are a 
young nation and they have all the enthusiasm of a 
young nation, and they will go ahead perhaps alright 
(sic). But they have not got anything in reserve, Bob- 
bie. Froth is enthusiastic and young, too, but not 
very strong. I think the Eussians w^ould make mince- 
meat of the Germans, just as the Germans would of 
the poor pretty French. But the Eussians are raw, 
new, and not, I don’t think, a nation at all. Not one 
of them is the chosen race, dear Bobbie, ‘ the peculiar 
people.* If you want to find that, I think you had 
better look nearer home. 

' ‘ W ell, no more at present. I shall expect you to take 
good care of yourself, mind, while I am away, so that 
I shall find you hale and hearty when I come back, if I 
ever do. Don’t be getting up too early in the morn- 
ings, now ; and don’t forget your bottle of porter reg- 
ularly every night, as something is wanted at your time 
of life. — With love to Bobbie, from his son, 

‘‘ JoHK Hardy.” 

From this letter it will be seen that John Hardy 
could not only express his ideas with force and point, 
though in simple words, but that he possessed a large 
tract of brain, capable of taking in the world, and sum- 
ming it up, and passing right judgment upon it, as 
one having authority.” 


120 The Yellow Danger 

The letter reached England three weeks later, and 
could not escape the keen scent of the pressmen. It 
was published bodily in all the papers, bad spelling and 
all, the public gloating joyfully over its gentle wisdom, 
its humor, and its simplicity. 

All this time Hardy was traveling, partly by train, 
and partly by camel caravan, towards his fate in the 
capital of China. 


CHAPTEE XII 


THE AWAKEHIHG 

Dr. Yek How was seated in a garden of the Imperial 
City, reading. 

He was arrayed in sumptuous robes of the softest, 
richest silk, embroidered with the tongue-darting 
Dragon, in token of high rank. 

His pigtail reached to his calves : but at present only 
one inch and a half of it was of the doctor’s own hair. 
The rest was artificial — made of fine black silk. Many 
dignitaries of even the highest rank in China adopted 
this convention. 

Yen How, a minute or two before, had drawn the 
chop-sticks between his lips as the final ceremony to a 
dainty feed on rice-birds (just then in season), and the 
juiciest, tenderest tea. The meal had been held before 
him by attendants in gorgeous robes, themselves of 
high rank. 

The ice-bound winter of Northern China was over. 
The sudden, hot spring was here. 

By the right hand of Yen How was a stand of ebony 
arabesqued in walrus-tnsk. On it was some of the pig- 
ment which the Chinese use for ink, and brushes such 
as they use for pens ; there were also some folios of fine 
silk paper ; there was a silver gong ; and, half falling 
to the ground, the North China Daily Neivs. 

In Yen How’s hands was an old copy of the Shang- 
hai Mercury. Yen How was reading it; and as he 
read, his eyes went small in a smile. Something 
amused the doctor. 

It was this : Hery von Biilow, the German Foreign 

m 


122 The Yellow Danger 

Minister, had, a good many months before, made a 
remark in the Reichstag which was reproduced later on 
in the Mercury, Von Billow had said : ‘‘The Chinese 
Empire has already lasted 4300 years ; it will last an- 
other 3000.’^ 

“He did not mean it, murmured Yen How, “be- 
cause he is a fool. But a fool may sometimes say a 
true thing, without meaning it."” 

At the same time he touched on his breast the 
decoration of the Red Eagle of the First Class which 
the German Emperor had conferred upon him im- 
mediately after the grant by China of the territories to 
Germany. 

Then he went on with his slow, contemplative 
reading. 

We have spoken of the meteoric career of this man 
in China ; we said that he “ rose like a rocket.” But 
he did not do all this by miracle. A rocket will not 
rise of itself ; it must be impelled by an upward, ac- 
countable force. 

To what did Yen How owe his supreme authority ? — 
for his authority was now far more absolute than that 
of any Brother of the Sun and Moon who ever occupied 
the throne of the Hsils. He owed it first of all to his 
Learning ; secondly, to his intensity of Racial Instinct ; 
and thirdly, to his audacious Genius. 

To his Learning, first of all : for in China every door 
was open to the learned man. The learned man’s 
learning, however, must be Chinese ; and here was the 
miracle of Dr. Yen How’s achievements in the State 
Examination Halls of Canton and Pekin : that he who 
there proved himself more instructed than the pundits 
in Chinese wisdom, had spent the greater part of his 
life in acquiring Western scientific views and methods 
in Heidelberg, Paris, and Edinburgh. 

He began at the bottom. He passed through the 
examination at Canton. The “Hall” was not a hall 
at all, but a double row of small sentry-boxes, capable 
of holding one person only, in which the examinee, 
provided with food, ink, brushes, and paper, spent two 
solitary weeks, seeing no one, answering his questions. 


The Awakening 123 

He usually came out more like a dead than a living 
man, and, even for the most erudite, the ordeal was 
one of fire. 

During that fortnight of dark seclusion. Yen How 
smiled and smiled and smiled again. He was examined 
on the complex Theology, the fanciful History, the intri- 
cate old Law, the amazing Astronomy of the Chinese. 
In all these subjects, and many more, their Learning 
consists of an immense range of minute dogmatism, 
which the whole lifetime of their wise men was spent in 
acquiring. Yen How’s big brain knew all about these 
subjects — more about them than his examiners. But he 
differed from them in this : that he alone knew the 
falseness of the answers which he painted. His eyes 
were all smiles as he sat there writing about the earth 
going round the sun in so many seconds, and about 
the place of Confucius in the third hierarchy of the 
gods. It was the sweetest fun to him. 

When he came from his sentry-box at the end of the 
two weeks among a number of wan and tottering men, 
his tough visage showed no sign of fatigue. He smiled 
always. He knew that he would be First on the 
list. 

And First he was. Later, when the result was an- 
nounced at the portal of the ‘‘ Hall,” he was carried 
to his home through the streets on the shoulders of 
the people. 

The Chinese populace still cherished the same awe and 
high reverence for the Learned Man which, in Europe, 
was cherished in the Middle Ages for what was called 
‘^The Scholar.” 

Yen How at once received a summons to appear be- 
fore the Viceroy of Nanking. He appeared. A choice 
of two things was put before him : he might either 
accept a Judgeship in the Province of Kiang-si, or he 
might go north, and compete in another examination 
at Pekin, where, if he was moderately successful, he 
would possibly obtain a post in the Inner Court of the 
Imperial City. 

One offer was a certainty ; the other hypothetical. 
But Yen How had not the slightest intention of going 


124 The Yellow Danger 

to be a Judge in the Province of Kiang-si. He had 
other aims. 

He went to Pekin, and very soon underwent the far 
sterner ordeal in the famous Examination Halls of that 
city. Again he was easily First on the list — a feat 
which at once admitted him to high honor in the Im- 
perial Court. 

He had gained his entree. 

Another Chinaman would now have said : I have 
achieved my end.^^ Yen How said : I have made a 
beginning.” 

But the rest was not difficult. In Oriental countries, 
rises, as well as falls, are rapid. Let Haman be 
hanged, and let Mordecai be put in his place.” The 
prophet Daniel rose from nothing to the supreme power 
in a night. Yen How did it in two months. 

So great Avas the necessity for Western methods, 
and AVestern science, in the Government of China, 
that the Chinese were actually compelled at that very 
time to overcome their shuddering racial abhorrence 
of the white man, and to pay large salaries to white 
experts, in various departments, to plan and to admin- 
ister. Germans drilled China’s army, Englishmen col- 
lected her customs, Frenchmen planned her railways. 

It is not possible to estimate the omnipotence which 
would suddenly fall into the hand of a real Chinaman, 
Avho could do all this better than either German, 
Englishman, or Frenchman. To the Chinese tongue 
he was SAveet as white mice preserved in honey. He 
became the Emperor of the Emperor. 

But then, besides Knowledge and Eace, Yen Hoav 
had something more : he had Genius — the large Eye — 
the summoning Voice — the enchanter’s Wand. The 
vastness of his outlook — the world-dimensions of his 
schemes — Avere simply fascinating. ^‘Talk, my son, 
talk,” old Li would say, sitting before Yen Hoav, hold- 
ing liis chin in his hand, his eyes riveted on the doc- 
tor’s face ; and when Yen ceased, Li would say : ‘‘ Talk 
on, my son, talk on ; your Avords have flavor ; and tlie 
palate of the ear is led astray by them.” Yen How 
soon became a sort of dissipation for the aged Minister, 


The Awakening 125 

like an advanced novel for a very young girl. When 
Li wanted sensation, he came and sat with his chin in 
his hand, and listened with delicious musings to Yen. 
It was at Li^s own suggestion that the Yellow Jacket 
was given to Yen How. It was among the necessities of 
things, and Li saw it. And at once — loithout an hour's 
delay — the little Heidelberg doctor began to act. 

His first care was to bring about a secret treaty 
between Japan and China. 

He had not been idle in Japan. He had taken fre- 
quent voyages down the Peiho to Tientsin, and thence 
to Tokio. Of his insinuations to, and relation with, 
the Marquis Ito, we have spoken. But Yen How kept 
his most delicious plum of temptation in reserve till 
the last. He then showed that however great China 
became, J apan would always be the mistress of China ; 
when China was the mistress of Europe and Asia, that 
meant that Japan would be the mistress of the world. 
The treaty was signed. It was his first step. 

Yen How saw that the navy of Japan would be neces- 
sary to his schemes. Without that, nothing permanent 
and final could be done. 

His next step was to bring about the European 
war. 

He did it so boldly, with such a grand disregard for 
appearances, with such contemptuous prodigality, that 
it was a wonder that both his present and ultimate 
motives were not divined. For it must be remembered 
that the idea of The Yellow Danger” was no new one 
to European statesmen. Again .and again had the 
more keen-eyed of politicians pointed Eastward, and 
said to Europe : The Yellow Danger ! the Yellow 
Danger ! ” Only a year or so previously had Lord 
Charles Beresford, in a speech delivered, we think, at 
Hull, used words like these : The cloud at present 
may seem only the size of a man’s hand — but it is 
there ; and its seemingly small size is due merely to its 
remoteness, not to its intrinsic smallness. What ap- 
paling fate would be that of Europe, if the yellow 
races, in their hundreds of millions, organized a west- 
ward march, is beyond the imagination of man to con- 


126 The Yellow Danger 

ceive.” Again and again had this note of warning 
been sounded. But the mischief lay in this very fact : 
that the cloud had appeared of “the size of a man’s 
hand.” It was too remote. The idea was not yet 
realized and assimilated by Europe. 

Still, as we say, there was nothing at all new in 
Yen How’s idea of over-running Europe, as is proved 
by the fact that that phrase, “ The Yellow Danger,” 
had become quite common in every one’s ears ; what 
was new, was first, his discernment of the fact that 
the yellow races would probably fail, unless Europe 
were, to begin with, made ready for them by a great 
inter-European war ; and secondly, the novel means 
which he took to bring about that war. 

No single soul outside China and Japan suspected 
his ulterior motive of over-running Europe when he 
made the grants of territory — for the cloud, though 
often pointed out, was “ like a man’s hand ” ; but 
three people, at least, suspected his present motive of 
bringing about a European war. One was a young 
student in the Quartier Latin in Paris ; another was 
Sir Charles Dilke, who mentioned it as just a possibility 
at a dinner at the National Liberal Club ; the third 
was a Hampshire gentleman, who, as we said in a 
former chapter, wrote a letter to the Times during 
the excitement preceding the war, making this sugges- 
tion of China’s motive. The letter attracted little 
attention. This Hampshire gentleman was John 
Hardy. 

His eye had seen ! 

Yen How’s first step was the league with Japan ; 
his second was the European war ; his third was the 
organization of China. 

This last was a great task — it was stupendous. Only 
a new Confucius could have done it. But Yen How 
was quite that. 

To wake a nation which has been asleep for four 
thousand years ! To lift the arm ! — and cry al9ud ! — 
and wake them in their myriads with a “ Eouse ye ! 
rouse ye ! the Hour is come ! the Day breaketh ! ” in 
a voice like the Trump of Doom ! 


127 


The Awakening 

The little doctor could do it — and did it. 

But again, he did not do it by miracle. He knew 
his way. 

The results attained by great Talent do indeed loo\ 
like miracle ; but they are not, of course, really so. 
The man of talent himself knows that he must use 
definitely precise ways and means, which, if used by 
any one else in the same manner, produce the same 
results. Talent is Industry — the capacity of being 
infinitely interested — of taking infinite pains. 

Yen How had been taking infinite pains from the day 
when he could first pronounce his name. 

All his acts in the rousing and organization of China 
were based upon a profound knowledge of the Chinese 
character. The principal points of this character are 
an immeasurable Greed, an absolute Contempt for the 
world outside China, and a fiendish Love of Cruelty. 

It is impossible for the vilest European to conceive ' 
the dark and hideous instincts of the Chinese race. 

The first thing that happened after the outbreak of 
the war in Europe was a wholesale massacre of Euro- 
peans in the East. Wholesale — but not haphazard : 
for Dr. Yen How was directing it. For the time 
being, every European became precious in his eyes — he 
collected them with care — he preserved them scrupu- 
lously — and he distributed them with deliberate wisdom. 
They were conveyed over China from Yun-nan to the 
villages round the Ming Tombs and from the Yellow 
Sea to the Tien-Shans. No district was without its 
white visitor. Then sounded Yen How’s first trumpet 
blast to the nation he meant to rouse. It is morn- 
ing ! the Day breaks ! And at once there occurred a 
memorable Passover-Day through the length and 
breadth of China — a holiday of gore, an orgy of 
death, to symbolize the annihilation of the white race 
all the world over. When it was ended, there was 
not a white man or woman alive on Chinese soil, except 
on an island or two ; all had perished in the act of 
undergoing the most loathsome public tortures. This 
Solemn Eeast-day, this Sacrament of Blood, made a 
lasting impression upon the spirit of the Chinese race, 


128 


The Yellow Danger 

which is sensitive to the suggestiveness of symbols. 
Yen How had begun well. Certainly, he knew his 
man. 

The killing of the German drill-sergeants of the 
Chinese Army was left to be performed by the hands 
of the soldiers whom they had drilled. 

The territories granted to the Continental nations 
were as yet unoccupied by them. The small European 
garrisons actually in China had been easily over- 
powered. And Europe was busy at home, fighting 
against herself. At last China was free to do as she 
chose. 

The attitude of the nation as a whole at this moment 
resembled that of a sleeping cat, which hears a sound, 
and pricks her ears. 

To say even so much of the Chinese is to say a great 
deal. For centuries they had lain in deep, stolid 
slumber, without one prick of the ears. There were 
still many millions of them who, as Li Hung Chang 
had said in Europe, had never so much as heard of the 
Chino- Japanese war. 

How to stir up such a people ? How to get at them, 
and fire them, and make them act ? Yen How 
knew. 

He must, first of all, now that he had given them a 
morning Dream of Blood, kick them hard to wake 
them, bruising their fiesh, if necessary : then, as they 
rubbed their wide and startled eyes, he would preach 
to them the Gospels of Greed — and Eace — and Cruelty. 

Already, by the time John Hardy had reached Vladi- 
vostok — just about four weeks after the battle of 
Shoreham — the kicking process was in full progress. 
There was a strange stirring, a movement, a new some- 
thing, in old China. Men said : What is toward ? 

What is to be ? Can these dry bones live ? The 
Spirit of a Man was abroad in the land — an intense 
Mind, a vitalizing Leaven — kneading, fermenting, 
energizing, creating. 

The massacred drill-sergeants were replaced by Jap- 
anese officers. But where there had been one German 
there appeared now a thousand Japanese, 


The Awakening 129 

Yen How’s scheme was nothing less than this : that 
every Chinaman should be a soldier. 

Conscription in China . . . ! 

Here was a lesson learned from Europe. 

But when we say ‘^soldier/’ we mean something 
different from what is understood by the word among 
us. We do not mean a man equipped with smokeless 
powder, and magazine rifles, with Lee-Metfords, and 
Martinis, and Sniders. We mean only a man having 
some sort of arms— a club, or a dart, or a match-lock 
or a poker — anything which would give him the idea 
tlmt he had to flght, and which would perhaps delay 
his death a moment while myriads of others swept 
over those who had killed him. The Chinese host was 
to resemble a flight of locusts, covering the entire sky 
from horizon, to horizon each member of which was 
armed with some implement, not so much for the pur- 
pose of killing, as for the purpose of protracting his 
own death, while the rest of the host pressed forward, 
blighting as they went. His duty was hardly to fight, 
but to occupy time in dying. Eor this service none 
were too old, few too young — and women were as good 
as men. Yen How’s army would consist of the 400,- 
000, 000 which formed the population of China. 

The organization of this war-host he planned prin- 
cipally on the French model. 

He divided the whole of China into 240 army-corps 
regions, each containing about two million inhabitants. 
This arrangement included Thibet, Mongolia, Man- 
churia, and Korea, the heads of which countries he had 
long since brought into line with his plans. 

In each region he quartered the principal elements 
of the field army-corps with the necessary staff, setting 
up in each region a large number of recruiting depots, 
and depots of artillery, transport, supplies of food and 
forage, with clothing and camp-equipment. 

The whole of the troops and organization for this 
purpose was put under the command of the General of 
that particular army-corps and its region. And this 
General was, in every case, a Japanese. 

Each region was divided into two hundred subdivis- 

9 


130 The Yellow Danger 

ions, each of the subdivisions furnishing one regiment 
of infantry of the line, twenty subdivisions forniing an 
infantry brigade command, and forty subdivisions an 
infantry divisional command. Divisional commands 
were also entrusted exclusively to Japanese; brigade 
and regimental commands to the most trustworthy of 
the Chinese officers of the regular army. 

Each corps was furnished with a vast corps-cavalry- 
brigade, the horses — to use an Irishism — being mules, 
and the weapon the long spear. 

Each regiment was subdivided into three battalions 
each battalion into four companies, and each company 
into twelve squads. 

Each squad contained from sixty to sixty-three per- 
sons, who were known by numbers, from Xo. 1 to No. 63. 

They contained children over the age of nine, women 
(except the wives and daughters of mandarins and 
other upper classes), and old men tottering on the 
verge of the grave. The priest and pundit classes were 
exempted also. 

The nation was organized into an army. 

This was one method which Yen How employed to 
kick and prick it into wakefulness. 

Each army-corps contained, beside its squadrons of 
cavalry and its eighteen batteries of artillery, six sec- 
tions of artificers, six artillery parks, thirty companies 
of pontooners, six telegraph sections, and forty field- 
bakeries. 

But there were no field-hospitals or hospital orderlies, 
no ambulances, no medical provisions. Yen How could 
afford men. 

One important feature of the army-corps was the 
provision of armored carts. They were to serve not 
only for transport, but for defense in battle, and their 
shape was contrived with this view, being long and low 
with small wheels, and rather ponderous. One had 
been made, or was to be made, for each peloton.” 

All this was now in rapid and intense progress. And 
the world knew nothing of it ! 

China, north of Tonquin, had telegraphically isolated 
herself. 


The Awakening 131 

In Japan the manufacture of guns, swords, spears, 
and small-arms was going forward with agonized 
activity ; and these Avere coming oyer to China. 
China’s chief manufacturing energies were directed to 
the making of armored carts and tents. 

But the drilling of China was only one-half of Yen 
How’s method of rousing it. He knew that it was neces- 
sary to drive the nation further still. He did this by 
taxing it. 

Let it not he supposed that any part of his motive 
was a need of money for all this war preparation. The 
loan raised in the previous year, which should have 
been spent by China in paying Japan’s war-indemnity, 
was still, except for one instalment, in the pockets of 
China. 

The loan had not been necessary to China at all ! 
She could have raised sufficient to pay Japan by an 
issue of Treasury bonds, the purchase of which may be 
made compulsory in China, if not subscribed to yolun- 
tarily. 

Or she could haye called upon the Viceroys to wring 
enough out of the mercantile and agricultural classes. 

But neither loan, nor bonds, nor Viceroy extortion 
had been necessary ! Japan’s mere credit was good for 
the building of the yessels she needed ; and the money, 
paid over to Japan, would simply have lain in the 
Bank of England to Japan’s credit. As a matter of 
fact, in the secret treaty between the Marquis Ito and 
Yen How, the payment of the indemnity was re- 
mitted. 

From this source alone China was, for the present, 
rich ; but under the guidance of an exact administra- 
tive brain like Yen How’s she was vastly richer still 
from quite other sources. 

China, in reality, was never a poor country ; on the 
contrary, she was potentially about the richest in the 
world. -Manchuria was an El Dorado of gold. The 
mineral mines of Kwang-tung, Heilung-Cliiang and 
the Kirin provinces had been the envy of the nations. 
But the curse of China had been her official class. The 
heavy Ukin charges, which Avent, nearly all of it, into 


132 


The Yellow Danger 

the pockets of its collectors, stifled many an industry. 
The Government income was estimated at two hundred 
and ten million taels, but only seventy million of this 
— one-third — was accounted for. On the remainder 
the mandarins wallowed in fatness. 

Yen How’s eyes screwed into a smile, and he said : 
‘‘No more of that, my sons ! ” 

The substance of what he said and what he did was 
this : “ You are to extort, you are to squeeze, and 

plunder, and grind the people ten times — a hundred 
times — more than ever before — till they perish like 
sheep of it. But this time you are going to do it not for 
your own benefit, but for my benefit, and for the benefit 
of China. I, Yen How, have said it, and will see to it.” 

Within two months from his attainment of the su- 
preme power, he had created a Board, formed on the 
lines of the Imperial Maritime Customs Board, for a 
clean-handed collection of the internal revenues. It 
contained some Chinese officials, but more Japanese. 

The immediate ellect of this change was an increase 
— by tens and hundreds — of the revenues which began 
to pour into the Treasury of Pekin. 

From the working of the mines, specially organized 
and superintended by Yen How himself, a great incre- 
ment of wealth began to flow into the swollen coffers 
of China. 

Yen How was not popular. He was kicking and 
pricking China into unpleasant wakefulness. But he 
knew that he had the sweetest oil in store to salve her 
bruises at the right moment. 

All these measures of his would have meant insurrec- 
tion, revolution, at another time — the introduction of 
the Japanese element, especially, into the new life of 
China was distasteful to the people. But now the 
stern universal military organization nipped every 
thought of rebellion in the bud. 

To turn a two-legged beast into a man — drill him, 
straighten his spine, make a soldier of him. He will 
never be a hopelessly unintelligent animal after that. 

Yen How was drilling the Chinese beast, straighten- 
ing his spine. By the time the beast could look round 


133 


The Awakening 

twice to tear whoever it was that was disturbing his 
slumbers, lo, he was already turned into a man with 
sufficient intelligence to see that there was no resisting 
this new Power which had him in its grip. 

The Chinese, when they saw no help for it, began to 
fraternize with the now ubiquitous Japanese element. 
Yen How had foreseen this. They had already, more 
or less, learned to submit to the domination of white 
men. And the Jap was much less a foreign devil than 
the white man. On reflection he was judged to he an 
improvement. On reflection. Yen How, too, would, in 
time, be judged to be an improvement. 

But, meanwhile, he wore a secret steel plate over his 
breast. 

For the people of China were being terribly oppressed 
and badgered. 

The order of the day was drill, drill, drill — tax, tax, 
tax — work, work, work — all over the land. 

As yet no one knew why all this was — what was in 
the mind of the gods above. Yen How had not yet 
begun to preach his three Gospels to the people. 

So matters stood when, on the 18th of April, Yen 
How sat in his garden, reading an old Shanghai Mer- 
cury. 

An attendant opened a door in the courtyard, walked 
softly towards the great little man, and prostrated him- 
self before him. 

Speak 011 ,^^ said Yen How. 

A white man has been captured at Moukden, your 
Excellency, by soldiers of the Liao-Tong division, and 
sent on to Pekin. They have just arrived at the 
Palace — and await your instructions.” 

Let him be taken to the Imperial Prison-house for 
the night,” said l^en How, ^^and beheaded at sunris^e 
to-morrow. ” 

He went on reading. The servant made an obei- 
sance, and turned away. 

Do not call the man back. Yen How ! Let him go 
and do your bidding, and read you your paper, and be 
at peace ! For this is John Hardy that you have or- 
dered to be slain— and he is as strong as the rocks, and 


134 The Yellow Danger 

the strong earth, and the sky, and the stars in their 
courses fight for him ! 

But Yen How called the man back. 

Stop !” he cried. 

The attendant returned. 

What nation is he of ? ” asked Yen How. 

His interpreter says that he is an Englishman, 
your Excellency." 

Let him be brought before me here." 

And Yen How went on reading his paper. 


CHAPTER XIII 


JOHl?- AND YEN 

John Hardy, having arrived at Vladivostok, had 
engaged an interpreter, and spent two days in trying 
to charter a craft for Nagasaki, where he hoped to 
meet his ship, or hear about her locale. 

His impatience was fevered ; for he heard that no 
rencontre had as yet taken place ; but that, within a 
week, it was expected that the allied French, German 
and Russian vessels would meet the allied English and 
Japanese. Such was the report brought by junks from 
Nagasaki and Fusan, and by caravan from Newchwang 
and Kin-chow. 

An engagement had not occurred, for this simple 
reason : that the Allies had practically been in hiding 
from the English ; and the reason was this simple one : 
that they were finding extraordinary difiiculties in the 
matter of coaling, the English and Japanese having, 
as a matter of fact, created a ‘‘ corner by buying up 
all the coal in the East ; so that from Singapore to 
Vladivostok the cry had been coal ! coal ! 

Now, however — so said the reports — the French, 
German and Russian vessels had coal in plenty ! 
AVhence this supply had come, no one could conceive. 
It was a mystery — but a certainty. 

The battle, therefore, so long delayed, must come 
soon. 

Hardy’s pulses beat faster ; and his chagrin was in- 
tense when, after anxious search, he found no compra- 
dor e willing or able to secure him a passage to Naga- 
saki. The East was in suspense, waiting for the 

135 


136 The Yellow Danger 

future, without interest in the present. It turned a 
listless ear to Hardy’s pleadings. 

Nothing remained for it but Port Arthur, where, as 
he was told, he would be sure to find a willing Junk. 
But the journey was immense. Hardy almost gave up 
hope of the battle. 

But with strong heart he set out. He anticipated 
no danger. China was not formally at war with Eng- 
land. He did not know that, even in times of settled 
quietude, no traveler’s life was worth a rush in North- 
ern China — as in the case of Sir Harry Parkes. 

He had with him quite a little retinue ; and he 
traveled in a palanquin borne between mules. 

The northern Chinese were a hard, ferocious, and 
treacherous race — considerably more so than the 
southern. They were also larger and stronger men, — 
rascals tall, and lean, and brawny, their bony tough- 
ness being derived from the Tartar blood with which 
their tribes were infused. Their language, too, was 
different ; above all, their walk. The southerners 
walked on the flat foot, like Europeans ; the northern- 
ers swung along on their heels, with a backward slant 
of the body, like a statue put to lean with its back 
against a wall. 

At Hunshun Hardy stopped for a night at a two- 
roomed inn ; and here it was that, as soon as he was 
asleep, a consultation occurred between the villagers 
and his retinue of five. 

The next morning he went forward, this time in a 
springlessytAnc^’sAct or mule-cart. He could no longer 
bear the swinging between the palanquin mules. It 
had reduced him to a state of weakness ; he was now 
spitting up phlegm streaked with blood. 

At every village now they were surrounded by in- 
creasing crowds and clamors. But always John’s serv- 
ants spoke some words to the people, which had the 
effect of restraining them. As he set out afresh, a 
throng of those skeleton visages would be there to gape 
greedily after him ; but still, he did set out. 

A sickness of the heart — a sickness of the stomach 
— grew upon him. 


John and Yen 


137 

Could Man — could Woman — be like this ? ^ 

Every nerve in his gentle and loving nature rose in 
shuddering revolt against this race. 

He saw the whisperings and confabulations between 
his men and the mobs, and, with his instinct for truth, 
suspected treachery. But he was quite helpless. 

Everywhere, as he advanced, his eye noted tlie drill- 
ing, drilling, to which the nation was being subjected.* 

But he was now very sick, and languid, and day by 
day sat propped against the cart, staring wearily be- 
fore him, under the growing heat. He was compelled 
to keep up his strength with sips of the deleterious 
Chinese spirit samslm ; and the only food which he could 
procure for days was the sickening mass of rice and 
greens which forms the staple Chinese diet. 

He descended the river Yalu in a gorgeously painted 
junk, drawn on each bank by a mule. Here he had 
some rest, lying on the deck in long dreams of quiet- 
ude through the starlit nights of a Chinese spring. 
Never had the heavens and the earth seemed to him so 
lovely, enthralled in a mystery of peace, as in those 
vast sheeny nights of his descent of the Yalu. Near 
Wiju he commenced the land-journey again, on mule- 
back this time, somewhat recovered in health. 

He was given now to understand that he was being 
guided to Port Arthur. Instead of this, he was being 
led northward, toward Moukden. 

At Moukden was a garrison of the old regular army ; 
and the railway from thence to Tientsin had lately 
been completed. 

At an inn at Moukden he was eating, when a Jap- 
anese officer, accompanied by an interpreter, entered 
the room, and bade Hardy follow him. It was 
Yen How’s decree that any white man found by 
chance in Northern China should be sent on to Pekin. 

Hardy was ineffably surprised, first, at finding him- 
self in Moukden, and next at being hustled into a 
queer, low, dark railway train, in the keeping of half- 
a-dozen gigantic pigtails. 

But,” he protested through his interpreter, Eng- 
land is not at war with China ! ” 


138 The Yellow Danger 

said the Japanese with a grin, but China is 
at war with England/^ 

In the train John's wrists were bound. His in- 
terpreter and servants had disappeared. 

They reached Tientsin by train, and thence went on 
to the village of Tung-chow, five miles from Pekin, by 
junk up the Peiho. Just as the sun set they arrived 
at the mighty walls of Pekin, and had only time to 
rush between the gates, when the ponderous jaws of 
\ the city-portals clanged and roared behind them. 

^ Pekin 1 multitudinous, unfathomable city, place of 
beauty and of horror, of romance, and of infamy ! city 
of vast triple-boulevards, grand as the imagination of 
an architect, loathsome as the stench of a sewer, city 
of gauds and colors, vermilion, and emerald, and 
blue, and of temples, and avenues, of palaces and lakes 
and forests, immense, a world in itself, resembling in 
A its tone and aspect no other of the cities of man ! 

Here may the hoariness of our race on the earth, the 
vast age of the old world, be read even by the blind. 

Whoever is a Dreamer, let him bury himself in 
Pekin. The city is itself a dream — an opium-dream. 

It was necessary for Hardy to pass through both the 
Tartar and the Chinese cities before reaching the Im- 
perial City. Each of these three is enclosed within its 
own massive walls, independently of the great wall of 
the whole town. The Imperial City was sacred ground. 
Here resided the Supreme Power, and here also the Le- 
gations. The profane foot entered it on pain of death. 

They passed through a number of thoroughfares, 
broad as three or four Holborns laid side by side, and 
long as vistas ; streets thronging with camels, and 
jingling mules, and the booths of small merchants, and 
swaying pigtails ; and in an hour reached the Imperial 
Portal on mule-back. 

The leader of the little band produced his brevet, and 
found admittance. They proceeded slowly through a 
park, leading their animals now, and after traversing 
a number of secluded granite street, and a long marble 
colonnade, entered the courtyard of a vast, low, white 
palace. 


John and Yen 


139 

Hardy, as they halted, leant wearily upon his mule. 
There was a hollow pain at his chest, and at the back 
of his shoulders. His lips were dry and cracked. 

A door opened in the courtyard, and a soft-footed 
official came to learn the reason of this intrusion. 

A few words were spoken, and he turned away. In a 
quarter of a hour he was back again ; and five minutes 
afterwards Yen How and John Hardy were face to 
face. 

For quite a minute Yen continued to read his paper. 

Then he lifted his head suddenly, and said to the 
official : 

“You may go ; wait in the vestibule : when I want 
you I will sound.’’ 

The man went away. Yen How looked at John 
Hardy, and John Hardy looked at Yen How. 

Both were smiling. 

Yen How had still under his eye a scar where the 
fist of the English soldier, John Brabant, had struck 
him. So he smiled. 

Hardy’s hands were unbound. This had been done 
when he reached Tung-chow, where it had been neces- 
sary to mount a mule. He had on the usual blue pea- 
jacket ; and under this, in the breast-pocket, his 
loaded revolver. 

In the colloquy which followed, one of these two men 
spoke an English as perfectly grammatical as that of 
Tennyson or Macaulay, though with an intensely for- 
eign something in his way of speaking it ; the other 
spoke broken English. It was Yen who used the good, 
and John the bad, English. 

“Who are you, sir ?” said Yen How. 

“Me Englishman,” said John, “name John Hardy.” 

Yen had heard of the battle of Shoreham, and he 
never forgot a name. He said : 

“ Don’t talk pigeon English. I can understand 
you. I have lived some years in England.” 

“ Oh, veer goot. Me no knowee that. Me talk good 
English to Chinaman.” 

“ As you please. What is it you have come to China 
for?” 


140 The Yellow Danger 

Me sailor. Me come from Eussia to Vladivostok 
to joinee me ship. AVhat for you no letee me join it ? 
Englishman and Chinaman good friends.” 

‘‘ Since when ? ” 

For always ! ” 

‘‘You got a sister ? ” 

John was surprised. 

“ Yo,” he said. 

“ A female cousin ? ” ' 

“Yes. Well ” 

“ AVill you give me your cousin for my wife ?” 

John grinned. 

“Why, you queer Chinaman . . . ! ” he cried out. 

“Ah, you say no, you see. Englishman and 
Chinaman are not such very good friends, then.” 

The chief fact about John Hardy was that he had 
eyes which saw a fact. As these last words fell upon 
his ears, he looked keenly into the placid face before 
him ; and at once he realized that he was in the pres- 
ence, not so much of a Chinaman, as of a mind. 

And at once the instinct to speak pigeon English left 
him. Unconsciously he began to speak naturally. 
This was a great compliment to Dr. Yen How. 

“But look here, Mr. Chinaman,” he said, “ what is 
all this for ? Who are you ? ” 

“ Well, since you ask, I am called Yen How.” 

John started. 

“Ah, you know my name, I see,” said Yen How ; 
“ I know yours, too.” 

“Yes. Very good — I am glad that I find myself 
with you, since you are who you are. You are ac- 
quainted with European ideas, and certainly a man of 
sense. I wish to throw myself on your benevolence. 
I find myself in such a silly sort of scrape. I am a 
poor sailor trying to join my ship. Knowing China as 
a friendly country, 1 thought I should have no diffi- 
culty in passing through. Yet here I am ! What for ? 
Isn’t it very absurd ? Please help me to get out of 
this ! If you cannot set me free of your own power, 
you can at least put me in communication with the 
British Ambassador.” 


John and Yen 


141 


Yen How’s eyes went small in a smile. 

There isn’t any British Ambassador any more,” he 
said. 

How do you mean, sir ?” asked John. 

It is the Chinese custom to hang thieves by the 
heels, head downwards,” replied Yen. The British 
Ambassador has been hanged by the heels in the 
si^uare before the Pekin Temple of Confucius, and 
died while the people were torturing him with hot 
irons. ” 

John Hardy’s left eyelid lowered in intense menace. 

That is not really so, Mr. Chinaman ? ” 

It is, my son.” 

And whose doing was that ? Yotthe Government 
of China’s ? ” 

It was my doing, my son.” 

Yours, Yen How ? ” 

Mine.” 

Yow the two men were really in contact. They 
looked into each other’s eyes, searchingly, eye to eye. 

‘‘ You shocking little devil ! ” said John Hardy. 

Call me what you like. I will repay your insult 
by a compliment : you are a brave fellow.” 

^^You will be strangled like a frog for this, Mr. 
Chinaman ! ” 

“ AVhom by ? All the Englishmen in China are 
dead.” ' 

^‘All ?” 

Every one.” 

A massacre ?” 

‘‘A regular sacrament of death.” 

But the Chinese believe in a God above, I think ? ” 

Poh ! not much.” 

Vote do not ? ” 

Not I.” 

And the white men of other nations, they were 
massacred, too ? ” 

All— all.” 

But with what motive ? ” 

^^It would take too long to tell you,’^ 

Ah ! I knowJ^ 


142 


The Yellow Danger 


^‘Youdo?^^ 

‘‘Yes! I know ! I know I I had a queer, dim 
idea long ago. Now I know ! I know ! , 

“ You are shrewd then, as well as brave. 

“ Yes ! I know ! ” 

John Hardy was in an ecstasy of discovery. He saw 
the skies growing black, black over the earth. 

“ Well, will you give me your cousin for my wife 
now ? ’’ asked Yen How, all wrinkles. 

John did not answer. His brows were knit. It was 
only after a minute^s thought that he made two steps 
forward, and laid his right hand on Yen How’s shoulder, 
the doctor looking up into his face as he began to 
speak. 

“Now, look you. Yen How,” John said, “I know 
now, as I tell you, what your idea is like. Let me put 
it in plain words : you mean to sweep with this Chinese 
nation over Europe when our war is over, and Europe 
is prepared for your coming. I was a fool not to see 
it quite before — but that is it. And this idea is yours, 
yours only. Yen How : I see that. You have the face 
of a devil, you toad, you have ! Well, I have got an 
offer to make you — a challenge — if you are man enough 
to accept it. Get me out of this — put me on board 
my ship. And I will undertake to fight you, and beat 
you. I alone. Yen, against you alone. If you beat 
me, I give you, not my cousin, but the Queen’s 
daughters for your wives. If I beat you, I squeeze the 
life out of your throat, you frog. I promise you that 
I shall breathe not a word of this plan of yours 
to a living soul — no one shall know from me : and 
no one shall know from me about the massacre and 
the drilling of the people. I make you that offer, 
Yen.” 

John Hardy had recognized the great mind in Yen 
How ; now it was Yen How’s turn to recognize the 
same in John Hardy. Here was the full stature of 
Man, the world-big Thought, the sun-kindled Imagi- 
nation. 

Yen How answered. 

Take your hand from my shoulder my son,” 


John and Yen 


143 


what do you say, Yen ?” 

‘‘I say that your thought tickles me, boy.”' 

Well ? 

And I say, that if I were to accept your offer, you 
could go to your ship saying to yourself : ‘‘The great 
Yen How has recognized me as one of the two kings of 
the world.” 

“ Still, I wait for your answer.” 

“ How am I to count upon the silence you promise ? ” 

“ Well, you know something of English life. I come 
of a family of English gentlemen. We never break 
our word.” 

“Well, come, we shall see. Your thought — what 
shall I say ? — tickles me, my son. We shall see — come 
now. But first — do you know that I gave an order for 
your beheading ? And then I said I would see you. 
Do you know why ? I had a question to ask you.” 

“ Well ? ” 

“ Have you lived in London ? ” 

“ Yes — sometimes.” 

“Ah, well — there is just a chance, then. Did you 
ever know a lillee girl called — what’s her name ? — Ah ! 
Ada Seward.” 

Yen How could destroy a world without the quiver- 
ing of a nerve ; but as he uttered this name in a whis- 
per, he slunk, his voice trembled. 

Hardy did not answer. The name sounded familiar. 
He hung his head with knit brow, thinking. Suddenly 
he blushed. He had remembered — the music-hall — the 
drunken night — Lottie Collins — Ada. 

Yen saw the blush. 

To this man, drunk with his passion, it was incon- 
ceivable that any other man could see this girl, and not 
straightway go mad for love. Men will sometimes get 
so intoxicated with wine, that the sober state becomes 
inconceivable to them ; and they will say to a sober 
companion : “ Oh, you are drunk, boy ! ” 

Yen saw the blush, and he noticed now that Hardy’s 
face was more than usually lovely, even for one of 
a lovely race. It was a face made to be loved by 
womeii. 


144 


The Yellow Danger 

You have seen her ? ” He half rose from his seat, 
and brought his mouth in an intense, secret, cunning 
whisper close to Hardy’s ear. 

I have,” said John. 

He had an instinct, even then, that he was running 
some frightful danger in making this avowal. But he 
was truthful in a very rigid, rather old-fashioned sense. 
He had never told a falsehood. 

You have ? — in real truth ?” whispered Yen. 
have.” 

And — kissed her — eh, hoy ? ” 

The Chinaman’s face worked. He hissed rather than 
spoke these words. 

John grinned. 

‘‘ Why, — you most queer person ! ” 

He was ready to laugh a puzzled, anxious laugh. 

^^You have !” 

‘MVhat ?” 

Kissed her — eh, John Hardy ?” 

Of course, I have kissed her.” 

Then you die ! ” 

‘MYhat, not for kissing Miss Seward ?” 

You die, I say ! ” 

It was she who kissed we.” 

^^You die ! you die, you little white devil ! you die ! 
you die ! ” 

Up went the fingers of Yen’s right arm, twinkling in 
ecstatic wrath. 

There was no mistaking Yen How. He meant this. 

He pounded the gong twice with the hammer. 

“ In one half-hour ” he said, with a furious nod 

of the head at John. 

Hardy, perfectly cool, saw clearly that all hope for 
himself was lost. But he had no intention of leaving 
Yen How behind, to work his mischief in the world. 

The second sound of the gong had hardly shivered 
and clanged, when Hardy, with the revolver whipped 
from his breast-pocket, blew Yen How — passions, 
schemes, ambitions and all — out of existence. 

In intention, that is — in absolute, cool unerringness 
of aim. The bullet struck Yen precisely over the 


John and Yen 


14S 

Center of his heart. But it struck a plate of steel mail, 
and did not penetrate. 

John was about to fire a second shot at Yen’s head, 
when suddenly the two men were locked in desperate 
conflict. Yen had flung himself upon John. 

Yen’s eye had long before noted the bulge of John’s 
pea-jacket over the breast. He was half prepared for 
what had happened. 

The struggle was carried on with the entire physical 
force of the two combatants, the revolver being the 
aim of both efforts. 

John, though below the middle height, was quite an 
inch or so taller than Yen ; and he was able, with his 
left hand, to seize Yen’s pigtail, and draw it in a single 
coil tight round Yen’s throat ; while Yen enclosed the 
other’s right arm and ribs in a grip of iron, squeezing 
with all his energy, and heaving and slanting his ad- 
versary in the effort to effect a throw. 

The force of the tough little Chinaman was quite two 
or three times that of the frail English lad. 

This contest of strengths was a foreboding — and a 
resemblance — of the larger national contest which was 
impending. 

Hardy was comparatively weak. But in his right 
hand was a revolver, representing the Science of ^Y est- 
ern Civilization, which, however. Yen’s grip rendered 
ineffectual ; and in his left hand was Yen’s pigtail, 
representing the barbarism, the superstition, the repul- 
sive soul of the East. 

Yen’s face darkened. A gurgling came from his 
swollen lips. The rat was being suffocated by its own 
tail. The AYest was strangling the East. 

Suddenly the revolver went off, and the bullet en- 
tered Yen How’s left foot. The Science of the AYest 
had uttered a cry. 

But the AYest was breathing its last gasps under the 
stringent ferocious grasp of the East. 

The contest was short, and it ended suddenly. A 
little spout of blood welled and rolled from Hardy’s 
lips ; and at once he lost power, and fainted. 

Before he could fall to the ground, an attendant had 
10 


146 The Yellow Danger 

come up, and struck him a blow on the brow with a 
heavy bamboo. He fell at once flat on his back, his 
face covered with blood. 

Almost immediately Yen How was cool., 

“Take him away,” he said. “He has attempted 
my life — he must not be killed.” 

“ The torture. Your Excellency ? ” 

“Yes. But I will direct it myself. Go away.” 

He sat again, as the attendant lifted John in his 
brawny arms. He commenced once more to read the 
Mercury, 

OChere was a bullet in his foot. But he would not 
move ; the racking pain was sweet to him. 

The intensity of the Chinese instinct of Vengeance 
is a mystery — it is not human — it is not bestial — it may 
be demonic. To us, at all events, it is incomprehen- 
sible. 

To them pain is joy, if, at the same time, they can 
gloat over the knowledge that it is in their power to 
take a thousand-fold vengeance on the causer of the 
pain. They hug their pangs — they wantonly put off 
the hour of their revenge-#-they roll in a secret luxury 
of malice. 

In the matter of Torture, the Chinese have excelled 
all nations in a devilish cunning. They have investi- 
gated the nerves of man, and adapted their plagues to 
them with a nice and minute ingenuity. And Yen 
was more ingenious than the most ingenious. 

He intended to give his mind to this matter. Mean- 
time, he went on reading. 


CHAPTER XIV 

THE VANISHED FLEET 

It was twenty hours before John Hardy, in some 
absolutely dark place, opened his eyes. At about the 
same time, the battle at which he had hoped and striven 
to be present was going forward. 

Eor over a year the question which had been agitat- 
ing many an English mind was this : Is our weight of 
metal in Chinese waters enough ? Is it commensurate 
with possible contingencies ? Is it not too hopelessly 
small ? 

This anxiety had been somewhat allayed by the spec- 
tacle of ship after ship of the British navy — the 
Barjleur, the Bonaventure, the Hannibal ^ the Gibral- 
tar — steaming away in mysterious haste to the East. 

On the other hand, they had not steamed away 
alone : they had followed — they had been followed by 
— a host of the choicest, mightiest ships of Russia, 
France, and Germany, all hasting eastward, eastward, 
as if in the sweep of some law of gravitation, all with 
the same secret urgency, the same suggestion of mys- 
tery, and flurry, and design. 

Heavy Russian armaments like the Vladimir Mono- 
macli had hurried after French craft like the Pascal, 
and German craft like the Gefion. An addition of 
some 30,000 tons to her Chinese navy was made by 
Russia alone in her ships, the Rossiya, the Cissoi Veliki, 
the Navarin, 

This Eastern fever had infected even nations not 
precisely in the running. Away in the sweep of the 


148 The Yellow Danger 

Chinese Current went battle-ships from Italy, from 
Austria, from America. 

Ill a few months the seas of the Far East were gravid 
with the navies of the world. 

China herself, by way of pantomime, had been 
building cruisers at the Vulcan Dockyards at Stettin ; 
and at that very time was promenading the boulevards 
of the seas, quite like one of the cliicy with the new 
Hi- Chi, Hi- Tien, and Hai-Shen. 

The Hi- CM had a speed of twenty-four knots, and 
was a cruiser carrying an armament as heavy as many 
vessels twice her displacement. 

The fleet of Japan was in prime flghting order, mod- 
ern, as smart as it was swift and strong. It was worth 
any two of the fleets in Chinese waters put together. 

Was England’s weight of metal sufficient ? This 
was the question. 

The fact was, that England had ceased to be acutely 
anxious when it was once known that her weight was 
greater than that of any two of the European nations 
combined. 

She had added 37,000 tons, in round numbers, to 
her former Chinese squadron ; Eussia 36,000 ; France 

11.000. But, all told, she had concentrated 126,700 
tons in those waters, whereas Eussia’s total was only 

83.000, and France’s 26,000. It followed, therefore, 
that Britain had a preponderance of some 17,700 tons 
over these two. 

This had seemed enough, considering that some of 
Eussia’s terra-cotta colored ships were old fashioned. 

It was hardly remembered that there was Germany, 
too, with a weight of 27,000 tons in Chinese waters. 
Eussia, France, and Germany together had a prepon- 
derance over Britain of 10,000 tons. 

The fact was sufficiently impressive in itself ; but it 
had not been terrifying, even to those who remembered 
the possibility of the German element being hostile to 
the British, when they also remembered the splendid 
fleet of — Japan. 

Here was an additional element of 200,000 tons — all 
on the side of Britain. 


The Vanished Fleet 149 

For was not Japan the friend of England ? Were 
not their interests identical ? The Britain of the East, 
and the Britain of the West — how natural that tliey 
should stand shoulder to shoulder ! 

But there was one question, in connection with 
this queer, outlandish, yello\r ally of England, the 
correct answer to which would have sent as great a 
shock tlirougli England, could she have known it, as 
she had ever received in her history. The question 
was this : AVhere on earth, during the early part of 
April 1899, did the Allied fleet in Eastern waters get 
their sup^flies of coal ? ” 

We have stated that England and Japan, by a clever 
deal, had, weeks before, effected a corner in all the 
AYelsh and other coal in the East. 

Yet on the morning of the 19th of April the whole 
Allied navy, which some little time before had been 
almost immobilized for lack of steam-fuel, and had been 
hiding and dodging, each ship for herself, all about the 
northern Chinese coasts, now steamed gallantly past 
Quelpart in search of the British fleet, supposed to be 
somewhere in the neighborhood of Chemulpo. 

They were steering northwest ; Nagasaki lay south- 
east ; they were therefore coming from Japan. Could 
it be that from Japan they had obtained this coal ? 

And where was the fleet of Japan ? For two days 
Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Seymour had been expecting 
it, by previous arrangement, to appear off Chemulpo. 
But as yet it gave no sign. 

The Vice-Admiral was not at flrst precisely anxious ; 
for his only ground of suspicion that anything was 
wrong in China was the fact, reported to him at Hong- 
Kong six days before, that all communication between 
that island and the mainland had mysteriously ceased. 
Yen How had left the Englishmen on Hong-Kong 
alive, having no desire to have every Chinese port 
shelled by British guns. Hence, when the Vice-Ad- 
miral coaled and started northward hurriedly on receipt 
of a telegram from Tokio stating that the Allied fleet 
had managed to procure some coal, and were steaming 
eastward upon Japan, he had no suspicion of the mas- 


i5o The Yellow Danger 

sacre. His reply to Tokio was that he was starting 
northward at once, and would avoid an engagement, 
until the junction of the two fleets ; and he instructed 
the Japanese fleet to join him at Chemulpo. 

But at Chemulpo he received a shock. There was 
no white man in the place. 

All he could suppose was that there had been a rising 
in the town, and the white men killed. 

But he hardly attached any political importance to 
the fact. Such things were common in China. 

He waited with perfect confidence for the Japanese 
fleet. 

The next morning he received a cable despatched 
from Nagasaki to Fusan, and brought two hundred 
miles on mule-back to Chemulpo. It was as follows : 

‘‘The Allied fleets, plentifully supplied with coal, 
are about to steam eastward in search of you. Japanese 
fleet will follow.’^ 

“Steam easttoard!*' “Supplied with coal ! “ Will 

follow ! ” Certainly, now, if ever man was puzzled, it 
was the British Commander-in-Chief. 

For if the enemy were steaming eastward supplied 
with coal, that meant Japanese treachery. But if Japan 
were treacherous, and had joined the Allies, why on 
earth did she take the pains to warn the British of 
their advance ? 

And why “ will follow ? They should have set out, 
according to the Vice-AdmiraFs instructions, long be- 
fore. If they had not already set out, they were 
treacherous ; but if they were treacherous, why did 
they give this warning of it, instead of taking the ad- 
vantage of a surprise ? 

That they were not neutral seemed proved by the 
fact that they were “following at all. 

The Vice-AdmiraFs brow was a heavy cloud of care. 
He decided that the missive was a hoax, then that that 
was impossible, then again that it was a hoax. 

He sent an expedition of blue-jackets by road to Seoul 
to see who was there. They returned with the announce- 
ment that there were no white men in Seoul. 

The secret of J apan'^s action, though inscrutable, was 


The Vanished Fleet 


ISI 

this : she coaled the Allies in order that they might 
destroy the British ; and she warned the British in or- 
der that they might destroy the Allies. 

She helped both sides, being the enemy of both. 

But this policy was too subtle for the British Com- 
mander to divine without an absolute clue. 

The absence of white men at Seoul, as well as at 
Chemulpo, was merely an added shock. It brought no 
real light to the mind. He waited on, with anxious 
heart, for the appearance of the Japanese. 

Two days he spent in coaling the fleet out of four 
colliers which had accompanied him from Hong-Kong, 
and in taking in stores from the store-ships. At the 
end .of the second day there was still no sign of the yel- 
low ally of England. 

The •thing was so inexplicable, that even wonder- 
ment could And no guess. Japan was a nation among 
nations, responsible, presumably careful to keep her 
pledged word. What, then, could have happened ? 

“ What, in God’s name has happened ? ” said the 
Vice-Admiral to himself twenty times during the 
course of that terrible and sleepless night. 

But he did not neglect the warning of J apan’s cable. 
The next morning, immediately after the saluting of 
the colors, the fleet steamed from Chemulpo harbor, 
the flag-ship being the Barfleur, one of the only two 
line-of-battleships present. 

The Vice-Admiral, in his ignorance of the real facts 
of the situation, had no intention of being caught at 
anchor without sea-room. 

So far, no action had taken place in the East. The 
approaches to Vladivostok harbor. Port Arthur, and 
Kiao-Chau were crowded with mines, and defended by 
forts. The Vice-Admiral had preserved his fighting 
power from injury, till the first naval battle. After 
that, in the event of victory, he meant to proceed to 
the hostile ports. 

He went cruising southeastward under half steam. 
A bright, breezy morning of Spring. 

But what now is that, away yonder on the southern 
horizon ? A long streak of gray mist, which has the 


15 ^ The Yellow Danger 

property of growing swiftly broader and darker. The 
Japanese fleet at last, surely ! 

iso. It is the fleet of the allied enemy. That is 
quickly -determined by the look-outs. 

They numbered twenty-nine, and occupied the whole 
region of the southern hemi-horizon. 

The British ships were thirty-three. Among them, 
however, was a very large number of sinaller-tonnage 
craft, torpedo-boat destroyers, first-class gun-boats, 
second and third-class cruisers, despatch vessels, and 
sloops of war, of varying weight, from about 4000 to 
as low as 260 tons. But there, too, on the other hand, 
were the great Terrible, and her sister-cruiser (in 
whose books was the name of John Hardy, absent), the 
Powerful. These had each a tonnage of 14,200. 
There*, too, were the Revenge with 14,150 tons, and 
the Gibraltar with 7,700. 

The weight of the enemy was greater ; but it was 
not much greater ; and even so, it was not the custom 
of Englishmen to count as a deterrent from battle a 
preponderance of the enemy in physical power. The 
Vice-Admiral banished from his mind for the time the 
mystery of the Japanese fleet, and sent forth his com- 
mand with a high heart. 

Eumble Jack, below decks, belted his trousers with 
a determined snap, and stripped himself of blouse and 
shirt, j)repared to sink, to fight, to swim, to die, to 
live. 

Already from the conning-towers could be discerned 
the pea-soup color of some Eussian ships, though both 
fleets were pouring round the horizon two regions of 
dark smoke. 

The British approached in a very wide wedge, the 
Barfleicr leading at the apex of the formation, while 
the enemy maintained a double line, the whole of the 
first line being composed of Eussian vessels, the heavy 
Vladim ir Monomacli occupying the central post. 

The barb, so to speak, of the British wedge was as 
strong as possible. On each side of the Barfleur, 
somewhat astern of her, came the Poioerful and the 
Terrible, It was the intention of the Vice-Admiral to 


The Vanished Fleet 


153 

begin well, and to derive all the moral prestige which 
this fact might afford. At the moment when the Vladi- 
mir was two miles from the Barfleur^ and three from the 
Terrible and the Poioerfiil, the battle commenced on 
the British side. All the three British vessels had 
kept their forward barbettes trained upon the Vla- 
dimir, and they fired simultaneously. The result 
was just like magic. Before the smoke had cleared, 
the Eussian ship was no longer on the surface of the 
waters. 

An instant afterwards, and the battle was general. 

In the fury of warfare which now ensued, let the 
reader fix his eye upon a middle-sized and comparatHely 
unimportant ship which stands far back in the star- 
board limb of the British wedge. She is called the 
Iphigenia ; a second-class cruiser ; tonnage 3600, 
horse-power 7000 ; not very wonderfully armored, 
but agile in the water, and capable of showing a clean 
pair of heels. On board of her is — Fate. 

Yonder is the Gefion engaged with the Terrible, and 
yonder both the Pascal and the Indomitable with the 
Revenge, and yonder again the Barjieur with the 
Admiral Nachimoff, and the Powerful with the Jean 
Bart. Wide is the war and various. The British 
wedge has penetrated the fleet of the Allies. The 
navies of the world are mixed together in a hotch- 
potch of combat. Either with design or without, the 
battle, within five minutes from its start, has become a 
mere melee of thunder. 

There are instances, on one side and the other, of 
splendid maneuvering, of the right thing done at the 
right moment. But these all are individual, between 
ship and ship, captain and captain. Neither on the 
one side nor on the other is there any wide plan, or 
grand plot, or omnipresent eye. On the whole, it is a 
question of weight of metal against weight of metal. 
The great man is not there. 


Slowly, in his dark prison, the Chinese iron is entering 
into the soul of John Hardy. He is being taught th^ 


i54 The Yellow Danger 

meaning of Fear, and familiarity with the face of Pain. 
This, too, was necessary for him. 


But see what a mess the Terrible is making of the 
Geiion yonder in the very thick of things. Some of 
the ships are fighting at a little more than pistol-shot 
distance ; and the Terrible is well within half a knot of 
the dismantled Gejion, when Commander Maddern, 
careering to starboard, trumpets forth through the up- 
roar in a kind of German : ‘^Haul down your flag, or 
ril ram ! ” And half a minute later down sails the 
flag of the Gejion ; and half a minute later still, down 
dives the Gejion herself to her final harbor at the bot- 
tom of the Hwang Hai, which swallows with her all that 
part of her crew which a pinnace of the Terrible is 
unable to rescue. 

But the Revenge has lodged a 12-inch shell in the 
fore port magazine of the IndomptaMe in vain. ,The 
French ship shudders — then, a little forward of amid- 
ships, there is a red belch that spouts high above her 
mast, and curves outward in a lurid rain far over the 
sea — then there is a long reverberation of clattering 
thunder — and the Indomitable bursts and sinks. But 
this row is mingled with another, caused by the ram 
of the foundering Pascal which is working and raven- 
ing in the central armor-belt of the Revenge. The 
three vessels disappear from sight within a minute of 
each other. 

There, on the far starboard edge of the British line 
of battle, the Iphige^iia — on board of which is Fate — 
is leveling her whole port battery in one incessant roll of 
Gardners and Nordenfelclts upon a small approaching 
second-class torpedo-boat ; growling harshly is she, 
like a hound which bristles and gnashes and snarls, 
retreating backward, at the sudden apparition of an 
advancing cobra. 

The torpedo-boat lances one of her needles of steel, 
but it is caught by a wave, tossed upwards in a whifl 
of spray, and sent flying to starboard, where it ex- 
plodes under the stern of the French first-class battery- 


The Vanished Fleet 


i5S 

cruiser Arethuse, As the tube of the torpedo-boat 
sends forth another explosive, the ram of the Iphigenia 
passes into and over her small assailant ; the torpedo 
explodes ten yards away, but tears a hole in the forward 
protective bulkhead of the Ipliigenia. She commences 
to settle down by the starboard bow. 

But what is this phenomenon which now suddenly 
appals every eye — the eyes of friend and of foe ; some- 
thing appalling by its mere novelty, not hitherto seen 
in sea or land warfare — something in the air — with all 
the properties and the powers of a spirit of evil ? 

It is a balloon — narrow, low, and long — French in 
origin. It can be steered backward and forward even 
in the teeth of a light wind ; and its operators have 
the power of dropping dynamite shells with a steel 
casing, containing liquid oxygen and blasting gelatine, 
upon the hostile ships. It has come sailing with the 
light breath of the S. W. monsoon from a French ship 
which has studiously kept far on the outskirts of the 
battle. 

It is not a toy ; nor is it sent up as a curiosity for the 
amusement of the British ships. It becomes station- 
ary high over the Barjieur, a black dot is seen to dis- 
engage itself from it, and a moment or two afterwards 
ninety-five British sailors are dead, and the engines of 
the Ba7'fleur are no longer there. Then, sparing of its 
shells, it moves on in another direction, and then 
swiftly in another, and another, letting fall each 
time, like some evil bird, its deadly droppings. Ex- 
cept two, which fall into the sea, every shell de- 
stroys a ship. One bullet of a rifie would be sufficient 
to prove fatal to it, but it is high, its movements are 
swift and sudden, and when at last it tumbles, pierced, 
into the sea, the battle is all but over. It has done its 
work. 

This had been the wisdom of France, in the time of 
peace : that she had not despised the ingenious man, 
and his ingenuities ; she had invited the thinker ; she 
had welcomed the dreamer of dreams. 

This was the second time since the beginning of the 
war that the British had come into contact with the 


iS6 The Yellow Danger 

Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee, and had shud- ' 
dered intensely at the contact. 

But we are an ocean race ! Every cock on his own 
dunghill — and England on the sea. But for the French 
balloon, the British would very likely have won the 
battle by five seaworthy ships, and one unseaworthy. 
As it was, they won by two seaworthy ships, and one 
unseaworthy. 

The last shot fired was fired by the Ipliigenia at a 
German third-class cruiser, Avhich she sank. This was 
the last hut two of the Allied vessels left afloat ; the 
other tAvo, having some time since struck their flag, 
were now sinking fast. 

Besides the Ipliigenia, Avhich had engines, funnels, 
screAvs, and rudder intact, but had a considerable crank 
bow-wards, three Avere afloat of the British craft the 
Daphne, a twin-scrcAv sloop, practically uninjured, and 
the Barfleur, floating a mere log, unable to move. 
There Avere fifty-seven men alive in her. 

The Ipliigenia had one boat, and the Daphne two, 
still capable of passing over the water ; and these Avere 
soon out, tAvo of them making toAvards the Barfleur to 
take off her crew, and the third in the direction of one 
of the still floating tAvo ships of the Allies, for the pur- 
pose of rescue. 

The sea was oilily smooth ; the breeze had died to a 
mere breath ; the sun had climbed to noon. 

All Avas still. Over four buried navies the Avater 
swung lazily — as a cradle which one has ceased to rock, 
of its own motion. 

Weirdly sad is that vast and Avandering grave of the 
sailor ; and careless is the great heart of the sea. 

So intent Avere all who floated during this quiet noon- 
tide in the central ocean upon the humane Avork of res- 
cue, that no one noticed the SAvift approach upon 
them of a groAving cloud from the east ; and it was 
only Avhen a shrapnel shell came screaming upon the 
already shattered Barfleur, tliat the British sailors, to 
their consternation, discovered that yet another enemy 
was upon them. 

Presently, as though the neAV arrivals had found 


The Vanished Fleet 157 

an entire fleet to oppose them, the air was full of 
fire. 

Five large cruisers were seen to he steaming at full 
speed upon the small remnants of the four fleets. 

But cruisers of what nation ? They carried no flag ! 

The two vessels of the Allies — small torpedo-boat 
destroyers — had long since struck their colors. And 
at once, as a precautionary measure, the three British 
vessels did the same. 

But it made no difference ! The rain of fire con- 
tinued. 

Happily, before the boat of the Iphigenia reached the 
BarfleuTy the Ba7'fleur dipped, and sank. So also did 
one of the Allied ships, and also one of the Daphne^ s 
boats with her crew. The other of the Daphne's boats, 
and the Iphigenia's boat, at once turned to hurry to 
their ships. 

For the moment, the Iphigeiiia was still beyond ef- 
fective range of the shells of this strange enemy ; but 
one of the screws of the Daphne was shattered by a 
semi-submarine explosion. 

At once, as their boats reached them, the two Brit- 
ish ships turned tail under forced draught, flying 
straight westward from this sudden, dread, mysterious 
foe. 

Both were very swift ; but the Daphne could now 
only move with half her speed. On board the Iphige- 
nia the pumps were at work. 

The strange enemy, seeing that there was no longer 
target for their shot, ceased fire, and slackened speed. 
Only the swiftest of the cruisers was told off to con- 
tinue the chase of the fugitives. 

She gained upon them both, especially upon the 
Daphne ; but a stern chase is a long chase, and it was 
an hour before the first shell, shattering every gun in 
the Daphne's port central battery, warned her that 
further flight was useless. 

The Daphne, as she fled, had again hoisted her en- 
sign, and now again she struck it : and again was sur- 
render met by a hail of shot from this extraordinary 
adversary. 


iS8 The Yellow Danger 

The Daphne at once re-hoisted her colors, spun 
sharply round to port, and bore straight down upon 
her pursuer. 

Her commander -jy-as at least determined to sell the 
life of his ship dearly. 

But he was met by such a cataract of shell and shot 
that he perceived that he must certainly founder be- 
fore accomplishing the ram which he meditated. 

He determined, far off as he was, to risk the launch- 
ing of his last torpedo. 

It proved a happy inspiration. 

The little needle of disaster went hasting, in stead- 
fast headlong flight, in spite of swinging wave and 
baffling spray, straight upon its victim. It fastened 
upon her beam at the level of her armored deck, a few 
inches below the water-line, and burst. 

The strange vessel started, and, with a cough that 
rent her, threw her fragments over the sea. She was 
the Japanese cruiser TscMyoda. 

A minute later, while the Iphigenia was still hasting 
back to the scene of the duel, the Daphne sank with all 
hands. 

The Iphigenia was now miles out of sight of the four 
Japanese cruisers. She continued her course eastward, 
very slowly sinking all the time. 

About midnight of the next day she was beached on 
a sandy bottom not far from Kiao-Chau. 

She had on board a hundred and eighty men. 


CHAPTEE XV 


* THE SUICIDE OF EUEOPE 

At the time of the battle in the Hwang-Hai nearly 
all Europe was at war. 

If any one had imagined that Eussia, France, and 
Germany could declare war against England, and 
that there the matter would end, he must have 
been blind to the actual meaning of the then condi- 
tions. 

Shortly after the defeat of the Allies at Shoreham, a 
burst of Homeric laughter was caused over England and 
the Continent by the announcement that the Prince of 
Monaco (an independent sovereign, possessed of the 
magnificent army of sixty body-guard carabineers) had 
declared war against England. 

The episode, amusing in itself, was not without sig- 
nificance. 

The Prince was not a mere pantomimist. He had 
been compelled by some intricacy of the actual situation 
to act as he had acted, and his action only meant that 
so complex and finely-poised was the machinery of 
modern European polity, that it was no longer possible 
for any considerable portion of Europe to be at war 
without plunging into war the rest of it also. 

With the sound of the first cannon a thousand slum- 
bering passions of the people started into life. The 
hour had struck for the placing upon the stage of a 
thousand schemes of long-meditated revenge, avarice, 
and aggression. 

Servia rejoiced. Her secret vow to settle the long- 
standing account with her Bulgarian victors might now 

159 


l6o The Yellow Danger 

be fulfilled. Bulgaria rejoiced. Yow at last would 
she be free of Tsar and of Sultan alike. 

Sweden looked round with something of the aggressive 
enterprise of her old hero, Gustavus Adolpiius, wonder- 
ing if now, at last, she could not accomplish the de- 
liverance of her Finns from, the oppressive hand of 
Kussia. 

The Cretans, certain now that the Sultan would 
have his hands full of matters other than their small 
selves, girt on the dirk and carbine of massacre. Aus- 
tria turned her eyes toward Salonica with languishing, 
and her right hand crept out to steal. 

Eoumania dreamed that Eussia^s only motive for war 
was to furnish an excuse for her destruction, and 
rushed in arms to her frontiers. Italy had territories 
still “ unredeemed : and was not this the time to 
‘‘ redeem them ? 

Denmark had been nipped and curtailed, and her 
day was come for vengeance ; Portugal was alert to 
stab in the back her British rival in Africa in the hour 
of his preoccupation. 

At Athens, at Belgrade, at Sophia — from London to 
Batoum — from St. Petersburg to Meglo-Kastro — the 
sword leapt from its scabbard. 

MoUl I 

The Sultan pressed his fez tight upon his head, 
sitting among cushions ; and the panic of the sinner in 
the day of his calamity gripped coldly at this man^s 
heart. He had heard that the main body of the 
Servian army was moving eastward from its head- 
quarters at Knuzevatz, and were being massed upon 
]^isch and Vranja, while fresh levies were being made 
in order to form a strong reserve ; and he had hardly 
heard it, when the further news arrived that a bloody 
battle between Servian and Bulgarian divisions of in- 
fantry had occurred near Vlassina, in which the Bul- 
garians had been routed. 

The messengers of evil followed fast one upon the 
other, like the messengers of Job. 

The same night a considerable Austrian body crossed 
the Save^ and quietly occupied Belgrade, 


The Suicide of Europe i6i 

The next morning Austrian troops bivouacking in 
the open spaces of the city, and Austrian ofiicers taking 
dejeuner on the boulevards, met the astonished eyes of 
the waking citizens. 

It seemed as if the Golden Horn was in danger of 
being broken. 

For this action was tantamount to an act of hostility 
against Eussia on the part of Austria. AVithin a few 
hours after the occupation of Belgrade, another Aus- 
trian brigade, without firing a shot,' was installed in 
Scemendria. The same day telegraphic communication 
between Constantinople and Odessa was interrupted. 

Macedonia was in flames, and a land of emeutes, — 
both Anti-Turkish and Anti-Bulgarian, — from end to 
end. The Vali of Saloniki was assassinated and muti- 
lated in the streets of his city. 

The Porte had called out the last class of rediffs ; 
and rediffs from Smyrna and the Tripolitaine, to the 
number of 70,000, were being massed with a view to 
the protection of the frontier line. Fifty thousand 
men, still left around Stamboul, were distributed along 
the chain of forts from Koumalie Kavak to the Golden 
Horn. A fleet of Turkish torpedo-boats without tor- 
pedoes, and ironclads without ammunition, steamed 
northward through the Bosphorus. But before they 
reached the latitude of Midia, a fleet of Eussian Black- 
Sea battle-ships, torpedo-boats, and transports crowded 
with 90,000 troops from Odessa, had shelled and oc- 
cupied Bourgas. (Bourgas is in direct railway com- 
munication with Constantinople.) 

The uncalled-for action of Austria in occupying the 
two Servian towns was Eussia^’s defense for her occupa- 
tion of the Bulgarian town. 

Events followed one upon another with an ever- 
increasing frightfulness of rapidity. Developments 
which at other times would have required weeks for 
their outcome, now required hours. Europe wheeled 
in a delirium of haste. The next day half-a-dozen 
sotnias of irresponsible Cossacks pushed forward across 
the Galician frontier to Lubica ; and without delay 
Austria declared formal war against Eussia. 

II 


i 62 


The Yellow Danger 

Here was a topsy-turvydom of things — brought about 
by the festering greed and the old malice of the 
nations. Germany was the pledged ally of Austria ; 
Germany was the pledged ally of Eussia against Eng- 
land ; and Russia and Austria were at war ! 

Look, too, at those Italian Bersaglieri and Alpini 
climbing like chamois over the Alps, with batteries 
borne on nimble-hoofed mules, hy the Mont Cenis route. 
Italy means to get back, now, old Savoy — which is her 
Alsace-Lorraine — and is engaged on the one hand 
with French dragoons and mountain-chasseurs among 
the Alps, and, on the other, is shelling with her fleet 
the batteries that defend the Riviera, preparatory to 
landing three corps, her 2d, 4th, and 6th, in the neigh- 
borhood of Nice and Mentone. — Yet Germany was 
the ally of Italy ; and Germany was the ally of France ; 
and France and Italy were at war ! 

Mobil, then, ye sons of men ! Set briskly to it — for 
it is now or never. Mobil for your lives ! 

In England there was no longer a nation : there was 
only a Militia. The nation had become an army. 

After three days of a terrific artillery battle between 
British ironclads and the forts de la Floride, de I’Heure, 
and de Tourneville, an English army under Lord 
Roberts had occupied, first Havre, and then Harfleur. 
A series of disastrous battles, between Harfleur and 
Yvetot, had followed, in which the British, though 
outnumbered, were generally successful in claiming 
nominal victories. But they made no decided advance. 
The hitherto unknown results of modern contrivances 
were found to make victory almost as fatal as defeat. 
The very small bullets of the Lee-Metford and Lebel 
rifles — the enormous range of the magazine rifle — the 
use of smokeless powder — were discovered to be ele- 
ments whose effects were, on the whole, ten times 
greater than had been anticipated. Division after divi- 
sion hurried over from Britain to the support of the 
Havre army ; and corps after corps of the French 
massed upon Rouen, upon Harfleur, upon Confr^ville, 
and the neighboring towns to oppose them. It became 
a question of men. 


The Suicide of Europe 163 

Five British ships, which were all that was left of 
the Mediterranean Squadron after a great engagement 
in the Bay of Algeciras, were reducing Marseilles at 
the very time when the Italian ships were engaged in 
an incessant artillery duel with the forts along the 
Riviera coast. Yet Italy and England were hot 
formally allies. 

North and south a dark cloud of tragedy widened 
over France. In less than six weeks from the com- 
mencement of the war her 7th, 14th, 15th, and 16th 
Corps d^Armee had ceased to exist, in consequence of 
signal Italian victories in the south ; while in the 
north a steady deluge of British regiments had ac- 
counted for seven more of her corps. Toulon, the im- 
pregnable, was in the hands of General Ricotti. Havre 
was a British base. 

Already the reserve of the territorial army was being 
mobilized for probable service. 

France was shrinking under the intolerably harsh 
frown of England. The Joy of the whole earth was 
about to perish. 

England herself, in her tough, silent way, was in the 
grip of bitter suffering. The Government had estab-^ 
lished public granaries over the kingdom. But the- 
price of bread was prohibitive. Whole villages perished. 

Singular as it now seems, she had had no separate 
cable connecting her telegraphically with South Africa, 
which was to a large extent her life. When she was 
disconnected with the Continent, she found herself 
disconnected also with her most important colonies. 
It was necessary to adopt the method of sending a de- 
spatch vessel round the Cape in order to recall the 
Australian and Pacific Squadrons. The Suez Canal 
had long since been blown up by the French officials 
at Port Said. 

At the Cape a naval battle had resulted, by some 
few ships, in a victory for the Allies, in consequence of 
overwhelming odds. Cape Town and the British sea- 
board of South Africa had been shelled. Sierra Leone 
had become French. 

But Australia and the seaboard of India were already 


164 The Yellow Danger 

safe. The enemy needed all their still floating navies 
nearer home. 

On the strongly-fortifled German coast England’s 
success had been hardly less than marvelous. A small 
fleet of British war-ships and troopers had appeared at 
the entrance of the Kiel Canal, and captured Tronning. 

There the two great branches of the Teutonic race 
measured strengths. England had sent 100,000 men 
to fight a nation boasting the most exquisite military 
organization the world has ever conceived, and capable 
of placing in the field an army approaching three 
millions. 

The first result was mere disaster for the invaders, — 
but not moral defeat. They retained Tronning, and, 
by a coup^ the remnants of the scattered army under Sir 
Evelyn Wood possessed itself of Stralsund. They did 
it under cover of a bombardment by a British fieet, 
among the British ships being the three Swedish 
cruisers Gota, Svea, and Vanadis, which suddenly 
appeared, and joined in the action. 

Kor was this England’s last word to Germany. 

It can never be that guns and swords alone can rule 
the world. The nation with the stoutest heart and the 
hardest brow, she is the mistress. 

What happened at Havre, happened at Kiel and 
Stralsund. England with astonishing, steady perti- 
nacity sent men to fight — only, here, the rigor of the 
thing was greater, the flame hotter. 

In all that low-lying tract of land between Wismar, 
Keu Brandenburg, Anclam, and Stralsund a series of 
murderous conflicts took place, William. Iiimself di- 
recting the course of the campaign,* and the English 
being entrenched for the most part behind a semicir- 
cular line of earthworks stretching east and west, with 
Stralsund for base. 

The three lines of railway, west to Lubeck and 
Hamburg, east to Stettin, and south to Berlin, were 
in the hands of the British ; and after a day of fearful 
carnage in the neighborhood of Keu Brandenburg, 
in which the German army was routed with a loss of 
150,000 men, a successful rush was made for Stettin, 


The Suicide of Europe 165 

which, in the course of a night attack, fell into British 
hands. 

The same night nearly the whole of Berlin was de- 
stroyed by fire, a catastrophe attributed to the action ' 
of Socialists. 

And ever England came to Germany — raw levies, 
meager Cockney-born lads, boors from the Downs, Lan- 
cashire bodies, persons in kilts : not terrible to look 
at : terrible to meet in battle. 

Their chief characteristic is not that they are brave, 
and agile, and cool ; but that by some unknown na- 
tional quality of mind they really contrive to do what 
they try to do. Their results always produce a certain 
effect of surprise. 

Before these nimble invaders the tapfere Krieger of 
the Fatherland slowly receded. 

From Thon, that Metz of the East, from Konigs- 
berg, and Dantzig, and the great military depots of the 
Northeast, troops were drafted to repel this obstinate, 
rock-browed, small, unseasoned foe. 

But the more the English poured their levies upon 
the German seaboard, and the greater the draughts by 
AVillielm upon the as yet inactive corps, and nearer the 
possibility of a call upon the Teuton shopkeepers and 
burghers of the reserve, so the more Socialistic seemed 
to become the opinions of the German nation. 

Socialism — with its absurdities — with its heavenly 
gospel of salvation for the world — had, for ultimate 
good, or ulimate ill, got into the blood of the nations 
during the^ latter half of the nineteenth century, far 
more than*any one then supposed. Men who most hated 
the word, thought Socialism, and did not know it. It 
was bound to come out when the great moment for its 
birth arrived. 

Wilhelm walked on an abyss, and the ground be- 
neath his feet was parchment. 

He had no sooner withdrawn a large portion of the 
Army of the Vistula, than Danzig was sacked and 
taken by the Swedish fleet. 

The most extraordinary phenomenon of this vast and 
complex war was the success of Sweden everywhere. 


i66 


The Yellow Danger 

Within three weeks a division of her gallant little army, 
consisting of only three corps, had gained a permanent 
pied d terre as far south as Bromberg ; she had 
wrought havoc with the northeastern coast-defenses of 
Germany ; and she had turned West Prussia into a de- 
populated wilderness. Another division of her army, 
consisting of five corps, had in two great battles on 
the Banks of Lake IJlea routed two Eussian war-hosts, 
and had pushed on to Helsingfors, which they cap- 
tured from the land side, and made their headquar- 
ters. Intoxicated, they turned their faces across the 
Gulf of Finland toward Cronstat. 

The hands of Eussia were full enough. 

Immediately upon the outbreak of war with Austria, 
she had concentrated, as fast as her defective railway- 
system would allow, great masses of troops, consisting 
of the 4th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Army Corps, 
in the direction of Lemberg. Behind these followed 
the more remote 13th, 16th, and 17th Corps. 

Including the Corps d'Armee doing unsuccessful 
battle with the Swedes in Finland, by far the greater 
part of Eussia^s vast territorial power was now in the 
field, three additional army-corps having advanced 
from Kars to the investment of Erzeroum, where a 
crushing defeat at the hands of a mixed army of Turks 
and English awaited them. 

The eastern limb of the British Mediterranean fleet 
had steamed through the Bosphorus, conveying trans- 
ports to Trebizonde, and then proceeded northwards, 
with the double object of a search for the Eussian Black 
Sea Squadron, and the bombardment of Odessa and 
Sebastopol. 

Austria had massed her forces into three armies : one 
in East Galicia, on the Dniester, another on the San 
with its back on Przemysl, the great bulwark of Middle 
Galicia, and the third on Cracow, the key of western 
Galicia, on the Upper Vistula. 

The Great White Tsar was preoccupied. All around 
his sky were clouds and darkness. That mighty breadth 
of empire was ali'eady rocking to its fall. 

The gray and green-coated soldiers of Eussia were 


The Suicide of Europe 167 

swarming round her borders, more on the defensive than 
the offensive. In the first fixed battle with the Aus- 
trians, General Gourko, the old Invincible, had been 
routed with such a horror of widespread massacre that 
the brain of the aged General was unhinged. 

And ever anew — after each orgy of blood — went 
forth the cry over Europe : Mohily MoMh 

In a skirmish near Karatova between two demi- 
regiments of Macedonians and Bulgarians, not a single 
man was left alive. 

In fact, Europe was destroying herself. Everywhere 
from Land’s End to the Caucasus, the grin of a specter 
was perceived in the air — the Specter of Hunger, and 
grim Scarcity, and raw-boned Want. t 

England had America to supply her wants ; but •. 
wants cannot be supplied save by the purchasing power ; 
of the party who wants. England’s purchasing power j 
had consisted in her commerce, and her commerce^’ 
was near to death. 

America, moreover, in this crisis, had no idea of 
small profits and quick returns. She had been thrown 
by the war into a state of financial collapse. And she 
raised her prices to prohibitive figures. 

On paper England remained rich enough. Her con- 
sols were taken up eagerly. The chief financiers and 
bankers of the world filled her war-chest. The security 
of by far the larger half of investments depended upon 
her success. As a matter of self-interest the Eoths- 
childs, and Wall Street, and the kings of finance, threw 
in their lot with her. 

But the industry of the world was at a standstill, 
and there is no wealth not the direct offspring of 
industry. 

Germany, Erance, Italy and Russia opened their 
ports to all comers, adopting the free-trade poliey of 
England — but too late. That, of course, which they 
were unable to buy was not brought to them to be 
sold. 

Russian wheat, by Imperial command, ceased to be 
exported. But it would quite certainly have ceased to 
be exported without the command. 


i68 The Yellow Danger 

The fields grew rich and oozy with a human sap, the 
blood of millions. But the hand of industry was 
palsied to sow the seed. 

MoUlf then, ye children of Europe ! Mobil all ye 
can ! But know that in the end it shall bite like a 
serpent, and sting like an adder. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE LOVE WHICH FOO-CHEE BORE TO AH-LIH 

Foo-chee was Xo. 13 of the 3d squad of the 1st 
company of the 2d battalion of the 11th regiment of 
the 2d brigade of the 1st division of the 17th Army 
Corps of the great army of China. 

Every morning and every night he lifted up both his 
hands, and he blessed the name of Yen How, illustri- 
ous, who by his might had changed the old flow and 
show of things. For why ? Because Ah-lin was Xo. 
15 of the same squad of the same company of the same 
battalion of the same regiment of the same brigade of 
the same division of the same Army Corps of the great 
army of China. 

Every day, between four and a quarter to six o’clock, 
the company was drilled on the plain southeast of 
Pekin, half a mile from the walls. The roll was called 
before drill, and if any one was absent, he or she was 
hanged publicly, by the heels, the next morning. So 
Ah-lin had to he there, and Foo-chee saw Ah-lin, and 
blessed Yen How, illustrious. 

Ah-lin was a girl of eighteen, very pretty, with the 
elongated face which the Chinese adore, and eyes so 
long, and narrow, and slanting. She was the daughter 
of a tiny silversmith whose shop was on a flf th floor in a 
gaudy Pekin main-street. 

Her father lived his life in a corner of the single 
room which was his shop and dwelling. His life was a 
dream, and his food rice-greens and opium. When he 
awoke from his paradises, he languidly took up a 
piece of silver, and looked at it, and put it down again, 

169 


lyo The Yellow Danger 

Ah-lin’s father and mother and herself lived happily 
upon fifteen tiaos per week. The father was exempt 
from service, because one of his legs was incapable of 
walking. The mother served in a different company 
from that of Ah-lin. 

But in spite of her poverty, Ah-lin had an elongated 
face, and peepy little bewitching eyes, and a pigtail of 
incredible length. Her feet, of course, had not been 
cramped, and she walked with a fine free swing, slant- 
ing a wee bit backward, like the true Northerner that 
she was. 

Foo-chee,’"’ said Ni-ching-tang, who was the father 
of Foo-chee, take your eyes from Ah-lin, my son. 
Leave Ali-lin be. She is loved by Sin-wan, and Sin- 
wan is among the honorable ones in the days which are.^^ 

Ni-ching-tang knew what he was saying ; for he was 
a very subordinate cook in the multitudinous kitchen 
of Yen How, and Sin-wan was a warder in the Imperial 
Prisons. Ni-ching-tang and Sin-wan were good nodding 
acquaintances, as we should say. 

That Sin-wan loved Ah-lin there could be no doubt. 
He had more than once risked his neck in leaving the 
Imperial precincts at unlawful hours to make signaling 
gestures before the fifth-fioor room of Ah-lin^s parents. 

But Sin-wan was of middle age, and unduly stout. 
His neck was thick and hard, and seemed made for 
hanging. And his countenance was as hideous as Fe’s, 
the joss, as it stands carved out in the ebon idols. 

Moreover, Sin-wan was addicted to orgies of the 
spirit samshti, and the impress of these excesses was left 
on his brutal face. 

Ah-lin’s eyes, though narrow, could see much ; and in 
her secret meditations in the darkness of the. .room at 
night she would think that Foo-chee was pleasant to 
look at, and Sin-wan was not. 

Foo-chee was a young man of twenty, and a seller of 
Thibet incense-sticks in the next street to Ah-lin’s. 
And these two units, among the tens of thousands of 
human beings that swarmed and sweltered around them, 
felt within them the stirrings of that force which made 
the world. 


Foo-Chee’s Love for Ah-Lin 171 

Ah-lin had noted the following eye of Foo-chee often, 
long before the strange drilling commenced ; and when 
she found herself almost next to him in the 3d squad, 
she had a presentiment and a tremor. It was the 
doing of the upper gods. 

‘‘ Ah-lin,"’ said Ah-lin"s mother, Nan-lin, turn 
away your eyes from the eyes that turn to you. Foo- 
chee is pleasant to look at, hut Sin-wan is among the 
honorable ones in the days that are. A child should 
love her father and her mother above herself, and do 
all for them.” 

But it was the doing of the upper gods, what hap- 
pened. Ah-lin was near to Foo-chee every day in the 
new drill ; and the drilling straightened Foo-chee’s 
back, so that his backward slant as he walked was in- 
creased, till a woman would have died for him. 

But Sin-wan, one night, beckoned to Nan-lin from 
the street, and Nan-lin sent down Ah-lin, and Sin-wan 
took Ah-lin by the hand and said : 

Ah-lin is well formed, both in face and figure. 
Therefore I, Sin-wan, will marry with Ah-lin.” 

At this directness Ah-lin hung her head. It was 
not difficult to perceive the sequence of cause and ef- 
fect in this matter — and she was afraid of Sin-wan. 

Do you say yes, Ah-lin ? ” said Sin-wan. If you 
say yes, I will take you now to a meal in Hing-Chang- 
Li’s eating-house, with fresh tea to drink.” 

I say yes,” replied Ah-lin, But my father and 
mother — to whom all honor — do not wish me to marry 
now.” 

^‘That is a lie, Ah-lin. Your father and mother 
wish you to marry. And you wish to marry, too. But 
you do not wish to marry with me. You wish to marry 
with Foo-chee.” 

Foo-chee ?” — she started — ‘‘Where did you hear 
the name of Foo-chee ? ” 

“ Your mother told me his name, Ah-lin.” 

“ It is strange. I know no one with such a name.” 

“It is a lie, Ah-lin. His name is written in green 
and red picture-letters over the booth where he sells 
incense-sticks. I have seen it, and I have seen Urn” 


172 The Yellow Danger 

And what do you say is his name ? ’’ 

“ Foo-chee/’ 

AVell, it may be, Sin-wan. I know nothing of the 
matter.” 

Foo-chee shall die, Ah-lin, if you do not marry 
with me.” 

Oh ! what for ? Whom has Foo-chee hurt ? He 
sells his incense-sticks, and hurts no one ! ” 

^sow I have made you say that you wish to marry 
with him. For you do not wish me to kill him, Ahlin.” 

Kill him, if you wish.” 
will kill him.” 

But why so ? ” 

‘‘ Because you will not marry with me.” 

I did not say I will not marry with you, Sin-wan.” 

Then you will ? ” 
must.” 

When, Ah-lin ? ” 

When the new drilling is no more.'’ 

Oh, that may he never. No. It shall he while 
this moon is big.” 

‘‘I cannot. Sin-wan — I cannot.” 

Why not, Ah-lin ? ” 

It is my father and mother, — to whom all ” 

‘^It is that dog’s gall, Foo-chee ! Foo-chee shall die, 
Ah-lin.” 

Oh, me ! I am not feeling happy. Sin-wan ! ” 

Ko, nor am I feeling happy, till you say that it 
shall he this moon ! Nor shall Foo-chee feel happy, 
when my knife is rankling in his liver ! Say it, Ah- 
lin ? ” 

^‘I say it. Sin-wan.” 

While the moon is big ?” 

‘‘Yes, Sin-wan.” 

“ Then I will go. And I will come again to-morrow 
night at this hour.” 

“ Did you not say that you would take me to the 
eating-house of Hing-Chang-Li for a meal, with fresh 
tea ?” 

“ I cannot to-night, for I have no time, since I must 
return now to the Imperial Prison. But to-morrow 


Foo-Chee’s Love for Ah-Lin 173 

night — or the night after — you shall feed at the eating- 
house of Hing-Chang-Li/^ 

So Sin-wan turned on his heels, and walked away on 
them. And when he arrived at the portals of the Im- 
perial City, he was already late, and his bulging neck 
was in danger. 

The Imperial Prisons stood in a great quadrangle of 
marble, fringed with stupendous avenues of long-h^aired 
trees of the banyan genus, being surrounded by a moat 
bridged by a number of marble bridges. The building 
itself is of marble, and of very great size. A stone’s 
throw to the south stood the palace of the Austrian 
Ambassador, embedded in a bower of foliage ; to the 
north, a hundred yards away, and separated from the 
prison by a lake overgrown with huge lilies and moon- 
leaved water-growths, stood the shaded palace of Yen 
How. The Imperial Palace itself was half a mile away 
by the broad avenue, but there was also a short-cut to 
it from the palace of Yen How. 

It was the quiet hour of the evening- time, and the 
sumptuous landscape of the Imperial City seemed to 
faint and doze in a dream of lotus peace. 

Leaning over one of the marble bridges that spanned 
the prison-moat was an old man. It was Ni-ching-tang, 
the father of Foo-chee. His day’s work was over, and 
he was looking sleepily upon the dark and slumbrous 
water of the moat. 

As he leaned so. Sin-wan approached him, passing to 
his duties in the prison. Ni-ching-tang would not have 
heard the tread of the thick-felted slippers ; but Sin- 
wan spoke. 

Give good to you, Ni-ching-tang,” he said. Has 
his Might, the Governor, passed this way yet ? ” 

No, Sin- wan,” the old man answered, and his eyes 
smiled; fear nothing. He will not know.” 

Know what, Ni-ching-tang ? ” 

That you are late — again.” 

Sin-wan leered. 

‘Ht comes of going to seek a little wife,” he said. 

•'^Poh! it is nothing — if you are not seen, But b , 
wife ? ” 


174 The Yellow Danger 

Ah-lin is her name, and she is the daughter of 
Lan-sing and Nan-lin, his wife. We will marry this 
moon. She is well formed, both in face and body.” 

‘‘ What, with small feet too 

^^No small feet ; but well formed in face and body.” 

And she lives where ? ” 

‘^In the third quarter, and the main street.” 

Why, I have a son who lives near the main street 
of the third quarter.” 

And what is your son's name, Yi-ching-tang ? ” 

Sin-wan did not notice that Ni-ching-tang paused 
a second before he answered. 

My son is called Cheng-lu,” he said. 

Then Sin-wan passed on, and entered the prison. 

As he went in, he took from his bosom a small cyl- 
inder of ebony, round which clung a roll of silkr 
paper. 

On the paper were six lines of writing, each starting 
from the top and going down to the bottom. Each line 
started with a date, and underneath the date came the 
instructions for that day. 

This document had been painted by Yen How, with 
his own hands. 

Yen How had stood over John Hardy, with watch 
and stethoscope in his hands. John had lain bound on 
his back on the marble floor. 

Yen How had examined him from head to foot. He 
had felt the texture of his muscles, had palpated the 
calves of his legs, had held his pulse, watch in hand. 
He had applied the stethoscope to John's chest, and 
heard the wheeze ; he had laid it over his heart, and 
made an estimate of the exact timbre of the beats, 
systole and diastole, venous and arterial. 

When it was over, he knew the precise truth about 
Hardy's vitality, its quantity, its intensity, its whole 
diathesis ; he knew just how much mental and physical 
torture the lad could bear, and for how long, without 
an actual cessation of life. 

He was not in a hurry. He waited — Hardy was well 
fed and nourished. It was over a week before the tor- 
ture began. 


Foo-Chee’s Love for Ah-Lin 175 

!N’o'w, when Sin- wan opened the door behind which 
John lay in sleep, Ada Seward would no longer have 
recognized the pretty hoy who had sat beside her in the 
music-hall, nor Miss Jay the gallant fellow who had 
made her start in an alarm of self-retention. 

Broad streaks of absolute white mingled with his long 
fair hair. His bony hands clutched and trembled in 
his sleep like the hands of some aged miser. 

At the first faint sound of the key, he sprang with 
a bound straight to his feet, wide awake. He had 
learned to be afraid now. 

Sin-wan, as he turned the key, muttered something 
to two men who were now with him. They went away 
up a narrow stairway into a room above. 

He gave a final glance at the directions under Day 
IV. on the silken scroll, and with studious brow ran 
over the points on his fingers. This was the fifth scroll 
of the kind, all covering a space of six days, which Sin- 
wan had studied. 

Having satisfied himself that all was ready, and his 
instructions well in his head. Sin-wan entered the 
chamber and closed the door behind him. 

The sight of that face had become a pang and a sick- 
ness to the soul of Hardy. To all his tortures it was 
an added torture. It grinned in his nightmares. It 
was the devil of his hell. 

He sank back in a corner pale as death. 

Sin-wan never brought him his food ; so that Sin- 
wan’s face was associated in his mind only with agony. 
Yen How, who knew the mind and its secrets, had 
willed it so. 

The room was not very small, but it was of stone, 
and damp. However, in one corner was a bed which 
was nothing less than luxurious, the coverings being 
of fine, padded silk. Hardy had not suffered from 
cold ; still less from hunger or thirst. 

These were tortures far and away too elementary 
and obvious to occur to such a mind as that of Yen 
How. The body, by itself, is capable of intense pangs ; 
but never is torture exquisite when it is wholly divorced 
from the mind. 


176 The Yellow Danger 

Yen How’s profound knowledge of this fact was 
proved when he said to himself : 

One of his tortures shall consist in the daily sight 
of — a Face.” 

Beside the quilted bed, there were in the chamber a 
table, on which was water and wine : near it, a cush- 
ioned chair ; and a stool made of a hard greenish- 
colored wood, provided with a straight upright back, 
and cross-pieces in the legs. It could not be moved. 
It was cramped by iron rivets to the flooring. 

The room was lighted by three Chinese lanterns 
which hung above Hardy’s reach, let down through 
holes in the ceiling a short way. 

Sometimes one, or two, or even the three, went out, 
through some carelessness of the attendants ; and even 
when they all burned, there was not much light. But 
Hardy’s eyes, long accustomed, saw everything. 

One of the ingenuities of pain to which he had been 
subjected consisted in the mere appearance of Sin-wan. 
Once Sin-wan had entered, leered round, and retired. 
The next day he entered, leered round, and retired. 
Was the ordeal over, then ? A heavenly hope leapt in 
Hardy. The next day Sin- wan appeared with a brazier 
crowded with white-hot wires. 

Several times lately Sin-wan had entered, leered 
round, and retired. With every new entrance now, 
John hoped that on this day no new sword would 
pierce him. For to-morrow he cared not — only for 
this day his spirit cried to Heaven. But on many a 
day Heaven turned her ear from him. 

He breathed in an agony of Hope, in an Arctic Hell 
of Fear. 

In the course of weeks his great mind had quite col- 
lapsed. He was now utterly demoralized and craven. 

He knew neither morning nor night. He had lost 
count of the days and the weeks. 

He did not commit suicide, because, at flrst, the means 
were not ready at his hand. It is not an easy matter 
for a man to dash his brains against the wall. Later, 
when he looked round for the means to kill himself, an 
intense cowardice seized him. He clung to life — only 


Poo-Chee’s Love for Ah-Lin 177 

to life. J list one little spark, too, of his innate stub- 
bornness lingered. After a torture, he would pray 
aloud that Heaven would send its swift Messenger upon 
him ; but his obstinate will to live returned, if a day 
of peace was granted to him. 

Now, as Sinrwan showed his face, he cringed against 
the wall with staring eyes of expectancy. 

Was this a day of torture ? or a day of grace ? 

What added a touch of intensest horror to the 
relation between this boy and this man was the fact 
that they had never exchanged a word. They were as 
remote and divided as two creatures of different 
planets. Sin-wan did not know a word of English, nor 
John of Chinese. 

A day of torture, or of grace ? He had ceased to 
care for the morrow ; but to-day . . . 

A wild hope stabbed his heart. Sin -wan had no 
sort of implement about him. He could not torture 
without an implement. It was a day of — grace, then ? 

No. The Chinaman walked to the cabinet in a 
corner where lay some cords. And he lifted them on 
his forearm, and he came to where John, half-standing, 
half-falling, cowered. 

John had long ceased to make any resistance to the 
binding process. 

During the operation this time he fainted. But 
terror woke him. He was placed on the liigh-backed 
stool, his arms bound behind the back, and his chest, 
high up to the neck, upon it. Underneath, his shoe- 
less feet were bound to the cross-pieces. 

He could not move his head backward, for the 
chair-back prevented him ; forward, he could move 
it about fifteen degrees, and from side to side about 
thirty. 

What was in store for him ? He was wide awake 
now. With starting eyeballs he waited. 

Five minutes passed. 

Then Sin-wan produced something. 

It was a leather strap, four and a half inches broad, 
sixteen long. At the ends were clasps. 

He put it round Hardy’s neck and clasped it. And 
13 


178 The Yellow Danger 

now Hardy could move his head neither backward, 
forward, nor sideward. 

He sat with elevated chin, staring — a gaze of horror 
into vacancy. Yet he felt no pain. 

He waited five more minutes, and the dim thought 
that reeled within his brain in a vertigo of woe was 
this : how long ? how long, 0 Lord ? 

Five minutes, and then five more : and then he felt 
— something. 

Yet it gave him no pain. 

It was a drop of fluid — water, in fact — which had 
fallen upon his nead from above. 

He waited half a minute, and it came again ; and 
half a minute, and it came again. And so, regularly, 
every half-minute it came for some ten minutes. 

This, of itself, to an ordinary person, would be a 
misery. But by this time John Hardy was so famil- 
iarized with agony that to him it was simply nothing. 
The slowly-dropping water collected on his head, and 
was trickling down his face, when he began to wonder, 
with a species of glad incredulity, whether this could 
be meant as a new torture. 

He could have born$ it all the night, and all the day, 
and thanked God for His clemency. 

Suddenly he lanced a horrid shriek. 

A drop of something else had fallen upon his head, 
and eaten into his scalp. It was a drop of strong oil 
of vitriol. 


Would the falling of the vitriol continue ? or the 
falling of the water ? 

The next drop was a drop of water. 

But if it had been vitriol, and vitriol thenceforth 
regularly, Hardy’s agonies would have been far less 
monstrous than, in fact, they were. 

In this was manifested the profundity of Yen How, 
that he knew how exquisitely to intensify the pangs of 
the body by means of the travail of the soul. 

The next drop was water, and the next was water, 
and the next was water, and the next was — vitriol ! 


Foo-Chee’s Love for Ah-Lin 179 

And now John Hardy cried out against Heaven, 
straining at his cords, and bawling like a bull. 

But drop by drop from the ceiling fell the implac- 
able fluid ; not so many drops of water, and then a 
drop of vitriol, but with crafty variations, sometimes 
two drops of vitriol at a time, and then for minutes not 
another. 

Yen How, however, knew his craft too well to make 
such an ordeal last very long. Sin-wan had instruc- 
tions that, as soon as the victim showed signs of mad- 
ness or collapse, the torture should cease. 

Accordingly, when Hardy ceased to cry aloud, and 
a reddish stream trickled down his chin, his bands 
were undone, and Sin-wan cast his unconscious body 
on the bed. 


Just about the time that he did so, Ah-lin was stand- 
ing before the incense-stick booth of Foo-chee. 

‘‘It is not that I am bold, Foo-chee,” she said, 
“ that I come here to speak. But I must say what I 
have in my mind.” 

Here was blessedness, and a wringing of the hands, 
and an embarrassment of the pleased eyelids, and the 
favor of the upper gods, for Foo-chee. 

“ It is an incense-stick that you desire,” he said, “and 
your name is Ah-lin, for I know it. And all the in- 
cense-sticks which I have are yours. For why ? Be- 
cause we stand and step together each day before sun- 
down in the same company of the drilled — no other 
reason.” 

“It is a lie, Foo-chee,” said Ah-lin, “ there is an- 
other reason — though I cannot guess what it can be. 
But whatever the reason be, you must now throw it 
quite away. It was not for an incense-stick that I 
came — though incense-sticks are pleasant, and I have 
long desired one — but to tell you just that. You must 
throw it quite away.” 

“ And for why ? ” 

“ Because another, who is greater than you, wants 
just the thing that you want. If you get that thing, 


i8o The Yellow Danger 

lie will kill you. In order that he may not kill you, 
he shall have the thing.’’ 

Cruel Ah-lin!” 

‘^No, not L You say what is not, not knowing, 
Foo-chee. But he will kill you ; therefore he shall have 
what you desire.” 

Then I shall kill myself, not having what I desire.” 

Cruel Foo-chee ! ” 

‘‘ You will, then, feel happy if I live, Ah-lin ! ” 

‘^Yes; and therefore I shall make myself feel un- 
happy by giving to another what you desire, in order 
that "l may feel happy at the same time in knowing 
that you live.” 

To feel happy and unhappy at the same time is 
mixed, Ah-lin.” 

But it is better, Foo-cliee, to feel happy and un- 
happy through a long lifetime than to feel happy for a 
little hour, and then die.” 

Here was the practicality of the Woman. Foo-chee 
pondered it. Then he lifted his head and said : 

There is a riddle somewhere which I cannot solve, 
Ah-lin. Let us go, instead, to the eating-house of 
Hing-Chang-Li for a meal, with fresh tea. And with 
you take three of these incense-sticks.” 

Ah-lin hesitated, and was lost. Foo-chee drew down 
the flap over his booth, and carefully adjusted the ring 
to the staple ; then together they walked off on their 
heels ; and their swinging pigtails met and touched, 
as it were knowingly, behind them. 

And at the eating-house of Hing-Chang-Li they ate a 
hearty meal, with a whole mitin of fresh tea-leaves. 

They were in the sweep of the force which underlies 
the world. It was the doing of the upper gods. 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE CHINESE IRON 

The next day John Hardy, at the hour of evening, sat 
in his corner, watching his door with a kind of wild- 
beast sullenness. 

His nerves had an instinct of the hour when Sin -wan 
was due to appear. 

So sick was his soul with misery after the ordeal of 
the day before, that he had eaten nothing since. His 
food lay imtasted on the table. 

He sat sprawling with disjected limbs on the floor, 
watching the point of Sin-waiPs expected entrance 
through the fierce and sullen corners of his eyes. 

He had often had the thought of braining Sin-wan 
with one of the porcelain platters, or of strangling him 
Avith his pig-tail, or with one of the ropes used to bind 
himself. As he sat there the thought now recurred to 
him. His brain was in that condition in which thoughts 
are no longer semi-voluntary, but seem to come and 
go at random of their OAvn motion, like winds through 
the vacant heaven. He had, however, sufficient reason 
left to give no entertainment to this thought. His 
chance, if he ever had it, was long past. He was too 
hopelessly frail now. 

He sat long, expecting. One of his lanterns went 
out ; then another ; in half an hour the third. He 
Avas in darkness. 

Suddenly the lad started as though a sword had 
pierced him. 

He looked eagerly towards the door ; and he said to 
himself, ‘‘Xo, no.^’ It was too incredible; he must 
be mad. 


181 


i 82 The Yellow Danger 

^^Mad, mad,” he moaned, his head buried in his two 
arms, as he rocked himself slowly to and fro, with a 
regular motion like a pendulum. So he went on for 
about half an hour, his face hidden, with sometimes a 
moan, and sometimes a word. What have I done ? ” 
he said wearily, in the thinnest whine : What have I 
done — 0 God, Father, God ? . . . But now I am mad, 
mad. ...” 

It had seemed to him, as the third lantern went out 
and left him in darkness, that, at the edge of the door, 
there was a long streak of semi-light — that the door was 
open ! 

He had sense enough to know that the condition of 
his mind was one far and away removed from a state of 
ordinary sanity ; that his senses were now quite capable 
of playing him tricks. But when, after a long time, 
he lifted his head, there, still before his eyes, was the 
streak of light. 

He sprang to his feet, and his pallor of death as- 
sumed a hue of even more absolute wanness. Groping 
limpingly along the walls, he made toward the door. 
But, on the whole, it was rather to assure himself of 
the optical delusion which he supposed, than with the 
expectation of finding the door really open. 

But the door was, really, open. 

What made his heart go bumping and bounding 
within his ribs was the look of Providence — the hint of 
God’s finger — in the fact of the lanterns all going out 
at the very time when the door, by some extraordinary 
means, had become unfastened. 

But though one step meant salvation, and one in- 
stant’s delay meant death, yet could he not take the 
step. The sudden shock of hope — the sudden suspicion 
of Heaven — all but killed him. He dropped back 
against the wall, panting, panting, trying with his 
right hand to force back the violent galloping of his 
heart. 

But the instant that he could move, he moved. 
With wide mouth and gasping chest, he cautiously 
pushed back the door, and passed through it. 

Toward what ? Toward certain capture ? It must 


The Chinese Iron 


183 

not be supposed that he was now in a mental condition 
to give this question even a single thought. He went 
through the open door precisely in the way in which a 
wild animal passes through the open door of its cage — 
instinctively toward liberty. He lived by moments. 
At this moment he was free ; to the next he gave not 
a thought. He simply walked forward as a stream 
flows downwan-ds — because it is a law of nature. 

He found himself in a long corridor ; and yonder, 
half-way down the corridor, was — a man. 

The man’s back was toward John ; and he was bend- 
ing down, cleaning a blue-glass lantern. 

It was at this sight that the flrst notion of the im- 
possibility of his ultimate escape occurred to Hardy ; 
and with this appreciation of the impossibility, came 
also the ravenous Desire, the frenzied Hope. As he 
slid swiftly back behind the door, and drew it upon 
himself, he was no longer a mere wild creature of in- 
stinct. He looked forward — he reasoned. 

He waited, fearing worse than death to stir the door. 
Then he had a sudden horror which pricked him 
like a goad to action — if Sin-wan came ? It was his 
hour ! 

He very slightly pushed back the door, and peeped 
out. The corridor was empty. 

He ran now, with the stealthy feet of a man treading 
on hot embers. His feet were bare and made no sound. 
He had on a shirt and trousers. But the shirt was 
filthy, and the trousers flapped in long rags all down 
his legs. His hair reached to his shoulders. 

At the end of the corridor was a door. He pushed 
it lightly. It did not move. He forced his shoulder 
against it. It was locked. 

He was as much a prisoner as before, then ? Im- 
mediately after the first intolerable sinking of the 
heart he could not believe it. A vague, but real, faith 
was in him now. The mere fact that he was where he 
was proved Providence. He believed dimly that God 
now was willing him to be free, wild as the idea was, 
far off as the probability might be. 

He looked round for some means of escape; and 


184 The Yellow Danger 

there, in fact, was a tall window in the side of the 
corridor, slightly open. 

He ran to it, and looked down. It opened upon 
another corridor twenty feet below. 

Twenty feet ! Tlie distance was infinite. 

Underneath his fiapping rags one could see the red 
and livid patchwork of his flesh, where it had been 
nipped and pinched and burned and pricked and bruised 
in half a hundred agonies. How could he leap twenty 
feet ? It was as dreadful to him as to an infant. Like 
the very aged, he was afraid of that which is high.” 

But as he looked again he saw a short rope hanging 
over the window-sill by which he could help himself 
down. 

And now, at this sight, it is a wonder that some sus- 
picion of the fact that all these happy chances were 
only part of another elaborate torture did not enter his 
head. But his brain was so preoccupied with the idea 
of Providence, that nothing of the sort occurred to him. 

With endless pains he managed, with the help of the 
rope, to reach the lower corridor ; and at once, with 
the same stealthy trepidation, he set out, running in 
the same direction in which he had so far come. 

At the end of this corridor also was a door ; and at 
his push it opened. 

Now he was in yet another corridor, at right angles 
to the first and second. In which direction should he 
turn ? He did not care. He would be guided right 
by the Hand that led him. Away to the right he went 
with tottering gait, treading on embers, hugging the 
wall. 

If only his heart would cease its awful thumping ! 
Surely, surely, through all that vast building, through 
all Pekin, they would hear the echoes of that laboring 
bosom ! So it seemed to him. 

His white, wide lips were twisted awry in his effort 
to take in and expel his noisy breath. 

As he ran in this excess of agitation, he suddenly 
remembered the battle of Shoreham, how he had been 
cool in the midst of sounding cannon and angry war. 
Could he not still be so ? Was he so much changed ? 


The Chinese Iron 


i8S 

He made a weak effort — a faint self-assertion of the old 
John Hardy. But in another instant he forgot the 
effort. It was far from him. 

He reached the end of the corridor, and was about to 
turn to the left, when, there before him, he saw two 
Chinamen, near to him, talking. They were standing 
in the middle of the passage which he had to pass. 

Had they seen him ? Had they not heard the labor 
of his heart ? Apparently not : they remained deep in 
talk. 

Must he lurk till they moved away? Would they 
not come his way ? 

Suddenly, behind him, down the length of the cor- 
ridor in which he stood, he heard a sound. He looked 
and saw a man approaching him. He was between two 
dangers. 

The man’s eyes were bent meditatively upon the 
ground. He came swinging toward Hardy. 

The night had not yet come, though it was near. 
The corridor in which the two conversed was not dark, 
but it was much dimmer than that in which John 
stood. It was necessary for him to move — the third 
man was coming near. 

He stole forward, inch by inch, sideways, with his 
chest against the wall, and his face twisted round 
watching the two talkers. He came near them — he 
was opposite to them — by a stretched-out arm they 
could touch him. 

Stealthily he crept, slowly as the movement of a 
glacier ; he was past them. And he was no sooner 
past them than, with incautious haste, eager only to be 
on — to be on — he sped away. During those instants of 
slow motion he had passed through all the terrors of 
the grave. 

The two men calmly continued their talk ; the third 
came up and joined them. Hardy went onwards undis- 
turbed. 

For quite half an hour he stole forward, all leers and 
tremors, like a thief in the night, through three halls, 
over a courtyard, along two more corridors, without 
anywhere meeting any one. 


1 86 The Yellow Danger 

The slumbrous gloaming deepened. He began to 
think himself lost in this endless structure, without 
hope of finding exit. 

But at last he saw an oblong of distinctly lesser 
obscurity ; he knew that this must be a door of exit 
from the prison. 

Could it be true ? Was he really about to escape 
into the open day — under the sky, the clouds ? He 
leapt forward. And as he did so, a man stood in 
the doorway, and leant his back against the door- 
post. 

It was far from light now, but Hardy would have 
felt the presence of that form and face in the darkest 
midnight. It was Sin- wan. 

John was still in full career to make for the door, 
when his eyes fell upon this man ; and like a shying 
horse he bolted aside. A door, as he touched the wall, 
gave way before his pressure. He rushed through, mad 
to put a world of distance between him and that face. 
As he hasted forward, in the dark now, he stepped 
upon nothing, and tumbled headlong down a fiight of 
stone stairs. 

He had hardly time to pick himself up when he 
heard that some one was behind him, descending the 
stairs, humming a tune. And he knew that it was 
Sin-wan. 

Ofi he rushed again ; and again, in five minutes, 
there was light. He stood between two walls, about 
five feet apart, about ten feet long ; and at the end of 
them was a portal, painted green, half open ; and be- 
yond the portal, he saw — trees ! 

He was free ! and yet he shuddered. Behind him 
was Sin-wan, coming, coming ; and before him the 
open gate ; but the whole of the space between him 
and the gate, and between the two walls, was paved 
with broken glass. 

There was not an inch of harmless ground upon which 
to place his naked feet. 

But Sin-wan was behind. Hardy stepped forward, 
and reached the gate, and passed through it, run- 
ning. 


The Chinese Iron 187 

Every footprint which he left behind now was a foot- 
print of blood. 

Still onward, panting heart ! The hand with which 
He leads is surely rough — but still, is He not leading ? 

And now for the bridge of marble ahead, which 
spans the moat. He reaches it, and starts and stops. 

There, in the middle of the bridge, leaning over the 
parapet, looking at the water, is a man. 

This gauntlet also Hardy must run. Crouching 
against the opposite parapet he crawls forward. 

His lust to be free is now a thousand thousand times 
more intense than ever before. Every danger that he 
has escaped has added to his terror, a deeper terror, to 
his hope a wilder frenzy. Like a beast he crawls for- 
ward on hands and knees, step by step, without a 
sound. 

But as he is exactly opposite the man, the man turns 
quite round. Hardy leaps to his feet. They are face 
to face, and eye to eye. 

All is over, then. He has been seen. 

But no ! What mean those groping hands, that 
hesitating step, as the man turns slowly away ? Is he 
blind? Can those eyes see nothing? So John Hardy 
believes. Here, at least, is Providence, and the lead- 
ing Hand. 

Away, once more, towards the palace of Yen How, 
and then down the long avenues to the portal of the 
‘‘ Imperial City.” This part of the way he remembers, 
having passed through it before. Onward, in the shade 
of the great trees, he limps, leaving behind him his 
trail of blood. He meets no one. He is under the 
open sky. Among the leaves sighs the evening wind. 

He reaches the great portal, and, strange to say, 
there is no one there. He passes out. He is in an 
open space — beyond the Imperial walls — which prop- 
erly belongs to the “ Chinese City.” 

So far has he escaped. A feeling of absolute security 
rushes upon him, and with it an overwhelming, speech- 
less gratitude. He drops to his knees ; his face turns 
upward in an ecstatic agony of love to the skies, washed 
in tears ; out stretch his arms in adoration. 


1 88 The Yellow Danger 

But between his eyes and the sky comes a face, and 
between his stretched-out arms comes a form. He 
leaps with a shriek to his feet, recognizes the face of 
Yen How, and faints in Yen How’s arms. 

The slightest possible smile wrinkled the corners of 
Yen How’s eyes. 

“ Poll !” he said in Englisli, it is nothing. Why 
such a cry as that ? It is your own fault, boy. You 
ought to have known that Providence — if there is such 
a thing — never works in these outright ways. Yen 
How’s Providence does — but Yen How is a smaller 
fellow altogether than the Big One above — if He is 
there at all. Is He there ? Is He there ? Ah I — may 
be, and may be, not. But just now it is Yen How 
for you, and not He. The man cleaning the lanterns, 
and the men talking together, and Sin-wan, and the 
blind man — they all saw you, you know, boy, because 
Yen How put them there to see you. And it is hard 
to escape from Yen How, whose Ada Seward you have 
been kissing, and whom you have tried to shoot, lillee 
English boy. And Yen How is not done with you yet 
— not yet — not yet. But those English ! ” — here he 
ceased to speak to the unconscious form in his arms, and 
continuedhis meditative soliloquy in Chinese — those 
English ! They are just like devils for fighting ! Only 
150 or 200 of them, they say, at Kiao-Ohau, and six 
weeks gone, and they not killed off yet. Stupid Jap- 
anese ship-captains to let them get away in that fash- 
ion. However — ah, lillee English kisser,” — he ad- 
dressed John Hardy again — ^‘wouldn’t you like to be 
with the 200 white men at Kian-Chau now ? I think 
you might be able to play some tricks with their help, 
too. But Yen How has you tight — Yen How, the toad, 
the frog, eh ? Stop, though ! isn’t there something- 
in your Bible about a plague of frogs in the land of 
Egypt in the Pharaohs’ time ? Yes, surely — yes. 
Well, now, how- would you like a little plague of 
frogs in your land of England, eh ? Ah, well, it is 
near. It is not far off now. ...” 

At this point a man appeared ; Yen How handed 
him the limp body of Hardy, and walked up and down 


The Chinese Iron 189 

a long time that night under the shade of the trees of 
the Imperial avenues. 

About this time there were two men outside the Im- 
perial precincts who ought to have been within them. 
One was Sin- wan, and the other was the father of Foo- 
chee, Ni-ching-tang. 

Ni-ching-tang went to the dwelling of his son Foo- 
chee, whom he loved, in order that he might see Foo- 
chee, and receive from him the reverences due to a 
father. And, lo, Foo-chee was not there ; and Foo- 
chee^s booth was deserted. 

Said Ni-ching-tang : 

‘‘Now where can Foo-chee be 

Sin-wan went to the dwelling of his promised wife, 
Ah-lin, to see her, and receive from her the reverences 
due to a husband that is to be. And lo, Ah-lin was 
not there. 

So Sin-wan said : 

Now where can Ah-lin be ? ” 

Now Ni-ching-tang was shrewd, and Sin-wan was 
shrewd. So Sin-wan said : 

Ah-lin is not far from the booth of Foo-chee.’^ 

And Ni-ching-tang said : 

He who knows how to find Ah-lin is far on the road 
to the discovery of Foo-chee. 

And Sin-wan set out to go to the booth of Foo-chee, 
and Ni-ching-tang to go to the dwelling of Ah-lin. 
And midway between the dwelling of Ah-lin and the 
booth of Foo-chee these two men metlnl^h^ street. 

It was Ni-ching-tang who spoke. 

Ho ! ho ! — late hours — late hours,’^ he said (and he 
half hid his nose behind a sportive hand) — late hours, 
and a merry courting-time. ” 

Sin-wan was struck dumb. Ni-ching-tang knew 
that Sin-wan had no right to be out of bounds, but 
Sin- wan did not know that Ni-ching-tang had no 
right. 

‘‘A merry courting-time ? ” said Sin-wan at last; 

but it is not so with me, Ni-ching-tang.” 

‘‘Well, after all, pleasure is ^pleasant to feel,” an- 
swered Ni-ching-tang, still harping on the same string ; 


190 The Yellow Danger 

“ and they will not know in the prison, Sin- wan, — for 
who will tell them ? ” 

^‘Pleasure is pleasant to feel, yes,^^ said Sin-wan; 
“ but it is not pleasure which I am feeling now, M- 
ching-tang/^ 

And why not, Sin-wan 

‘‘ Because Ah-lin, of whom I told you, is away 
from her home ; and my mind is telling me that she is 
making some one else feel pleasant instead of me.” 

Ho ! that is bad. And who is that some one. Sin- 
wan ? ” 

“ He is called Foo-chee.” 

Soil ! And you are now looking for Ah-lin ? — I see.” 
am looking for Foo-chee.” 

‘‘And for why ? ” 

“ To kill him.” 

“Soh! to kill Foo-chee. Well, that is the only 
way. But has Foo-chee no brother, no father, who 
will kill you back again ? ” 

“ I do not know.” 

“ With keen tortures ? ” 

“ Poh ! I do not think of that.” 

“With dreadful agonies of the brain and the liver. 
Sin- wan ? ” 

“ No ! I do not think of that. He is a brotherless 
dog, a seller of incense-sticks.” 

“ Well— well, do your will, Sin- wan. It is the only 
way. As for me, I am not feeling happy, too. I 
have a son, who has an enemy. 1 am going to look 
for my son now, that I may liear from him whether it 
will be necessary for me to kill his enemy or no.” 

“Well, then, may you do well, Ni-ching-tang.” 

“ And you, may you do well. Sin-wan ! ” 

And so they parted. But they neither of them found 
Ah-lin or Foo-chee that night ; for they did not think 
of looking into the eating-house of Hing-Chang-Li, 
where they two again were that night. 

So Sin- wan and N i-ching-tang hurried back, both of 
them, to the Imperial precincts, making an inward vow 
that, on the next night, they would procure more time, 
and do better* 


CHAPTER XVm 


SIN-WAK 

The next evening, at about six, John Hardy lay on 
his back on the bed of his prison. 

He was conscious that it was near the hour when 
Sin-wan appeared. 

His feet were so gashed and raw from his run over 
the glass, that he had not stood since he had been 
thrown upon the bed. For two days he had eaten 
nothing, being sick, sick. He was not far from death 
now. 

How long, 0 Lord ? How long ? This was the 
burden of his feeble thought. 

But he retained an intense interest in the nature 
of the added pangs which this day had in store for him. 

When the key turned, he sprang upright, though, 
at the effort, the wounds in his feet broke into fresh 
bleeding. 

Sin-wan entered, and at his entrance this time John 
Hardy’s flesh writhed like the flesh of a twisting ser- 
pent from his feet to the roots of his hair. 

Fire was the instrument of torture at which he felt 
the deepest horror. And Sin-wan had now with him a 
brazier, which swung from his Angers by a handle. 

In the brazier glowed and flushed the living coals of 
flame. 

He had in his hand no other instrument that John 
could see. But John, by this time, had begun to learn 
that when the instruments were at firstanvisible, then, 
in general, the agony was the most mentless. 

And now, at the sight of the flame, feeling himself 

m 


192 The Yellow Danger 

too hopelessly feeble to pass through any further hell 
that day, Hardy, by an impulse, did what he had never 
done before. He fell upon his knees, and stretched 
out his clasped hands in an attitude of meek supplica- 
tion to the Chinaman. 

Sin-wan was a man ; he had the limbs and bodily 
structure of the human being. Who could say if with- 
in him, too, some trace of the divine origin of man 
might not linger, some throe of love, some sob of pity ? 
In John^s eyes, as he knelt, cried a world of mute 
pleading. 

But the Chinaman showed no sign of having seen 
him. He deposited the brazier in a farther corner, 
took some small metal objects from a fold of his robe, 
dropped them on the floor, and approached the kneeling 
form. He proceeded to bind him as before, arms and 
feet, to the chair. But this time, first of all, he took 
ofl John’s shirt from the upper part of his body, leav- 
ing it to hang downward from the navel. 

This done, he went towards the fire, took up two of 
the six small metal objects which he had dropped, and 
put them on the fire to heat. 

The six objects consisted of four tiny Latin capital- 
letters in iron ; they wore the letters A, S, Y, H — the 
initials of Ada Seward and Yen How ; there were also 
a roll of iron wire and a pair of pincers. 

It was the intention of Yen How to print the four 
letters all over the body of John Hardy — on his breast, 
on his two arms, on his thighs, on his back ; two at a 
time ; two each day. 

And the letters of the first day, as Yen How had 
ordained in compliment to his queen, were to be A 
and S. 

But, as usual. Yen How had no idea of inflicting the 
mere brutal pang of a burn upon his victim ; some 
mental refinement of pain must mix with the scream 
of the physical nerves. 

Sin- wan took one of the two iron letters from the 
fire with the pincers, and holding it from him, ap- 
proached Hardy. The iron emitted a red glow, and 
seemed to burn into the staring eyesight of the victim. 


Sin -Wan 


193 

When his hare chest could feel the radiated heat, 
his torturer stood, liolding the metal steadily still. 
And so, for a few minutes, remained ; then returned 
and replaced the iron in the fire, without having touched 
John with it. 

And now he climbed and stood upon the table, the 
roll of wire in his hand. The three lanterns hung from 
the ceiling by hooks near to open spaces in the board- 
ing of the ceiling, through which the candles were 
placed in the lanterns. Over one of these hooks Sin- 
wan threw a length of wire ; and over another an- 
other length of wire. The hooks were near to each 
other. 

With one end of each of the two pieces of wire he 
made a half-loop ; and at once he hurried to the fire, 
snatched up the red-hot letter A witli the pincers, and 
hung it upon one of the loops ; then the S, and hung 
it upon the other. Their weight was sufficient to make 
the wires run through their supporting hooks ; and they 
fell upon the marble fioor. 

Sin-wan now gathered the other two ends of wire and 
secured them to a point in the wall, having drawn the 
two letters some inches from the ground. In his hand 
he held a piece of bamboo, and with this, standing in 
a line with the wires, he struck first one of the letters, 
then the other, gently forward. 

The two letters began to swing to and fro through 
the chamber, with uneven motions, one this way, one 
that. And right in the- line of their movement sat 
John Hardy. 

It depended entirely upon the force of the propul- 
sions which Sin- wan imparted to the letters with the 
bamboo, whether or no they touched the naked chest 
of the bound victim. 

Sometimes they touched, and left behind them, as 
they swung back, a whiff of smoke. Sometimes they 
touched twice in succession, one, or both. Some- 
times they were only expected — with a shrinking 
horror, and whistling breath, — and did not touch 
at all. 

It was a monstrous torture — the worst he had yet 


194 


The Yellow Danger 

sufEered — this coquetry of pain — these fleeting, incal- 
culable kisses of the hot and dancing letters. For 
every kiss — a whifl of smoke. 

Let us draw a veil over his agonies. His mouth was 
wide, bawling — his eyes straining from their sockets ; 
and at the tension of every fiber of his soul and body, 
his hair whitened — ^his skin grew sere — he lived through 
many a year — he became an old man. 

It was some twenty minutes before the see-saw of 
the swinging wires ceased. Sin-wan hurriedly left his 
post, ran toward John, and bound his eyes with a cloth. 
What happened within the next five minutes John did 
not know. He strained his ear to detect a sound, 
though he kept on mechanically bawling in a lower 
key. But he heard nothing. In reality. Sin-wan was 
reheating the metals to redness ; and his noiselessness 
had for its motive the fact that he wished to take the 
victim by surprise. 

AVhen the two bits of metal were of a bright glowing 
red, he passed one limb of the pincers inside the top 
of the A, and the other limb inside the upper curve of 
the S, and, holding them so together, at once trotted 
eagerly and silently upon John. 

A beastly scream broke forth, wondrously like the 
cry of a cat in the extreme of physical anguish. Sin- 
wan had suddenly clapped the hot pieces upon Hardy's 
right breast, and held them there. The metal sank, 
as into a bed of soft luxury, into the wasting flesh, 
fizzling forth a steaming smoko and reeking stench. . . . 


At the exact moment when his spirit fainted, and he 
lost the sense of pain, Foo-chee and Ah-lin met in one 
long embrace. 

Toward this they had been drawn and swept for days, 
and now, as the poets say, the two trembling dewdrops 
had trembled into one. 

It was outside the walls of Pekin, and all the mem- 
bers of Foo-cliee's and Ah-lin's company had swarmed 
back into the town ; for the drilling of the drilled was 
over. And only these two were left. 


Sin-Wan 


1Q5 


And Foo-chee said : 

‘‘ Ah-lin.” 

And Ah-lin said : 

‘‘ Foo-cliee.” 

And Foo-chee said : 

I am feeling happy, Ah-lin ; for we are here where 
none can see us, and the moon which is rising there is 
pleasant to see, though her face is round.” 

And Ah-lin said : 

Her face is broad in a laugh of joy, Foo-chee ! 
And do you like a woman with a broad face, Foo-chee, 
or with a long ? ” 

like a woman with a long face, Ah-lin,” said 
Foo-chee, ‘^like yours, Ah-lin.” 

And Ah-lin replied : 

‘^1 am not feeling at all unhappy, Foo-chee.” 

And it was then that the two dewdrops trembled 
into one in a long embrace. 

A really long one : for it began a minute before the 
closing of the gates of Pekin, and it lasted a minute 
after it. And had they had any idea of the real state 
of affairs, they would have felt like two very shattered 
and dislocated dewdrops indeed. 

It was Ah-lin who woke first from her trance, and 
she woke from it with a start that made her pigtail 
wriggle, and she whispered an awful pallid word into 
the ear of Foo-chee, and together they started towards 
the gates. 

They were shut out, they were hopelessly late. 
Pekin refused them. They must spend the long night 
without. 

Ah-lin had an instinct that this meant death for her 
beloved, perhaps for herself also. 

They stood hand-in-hand and the upper corners of 
their slanting eyes went very high indeed. 

Still, a whole night hand-in-hand with the beloved is 
not nothing. They walked away with a happiness 
troubled, but not destroyed. 

An hour later Sin-wan and Ni-ching-tang were ran- 
sacking a certain area of Pekin, one for his son, the 
other for Ah-lin and her lover, but separately, unsus- 


196 The Yellow Danger 

pected by each other. As for Sin-wan, his knife was 
brig’ll t and white. 

Oh, where is Foo-chee ? ” said Ki-ching-tang to 
himself. “Is my son dead ? 

The suspicion grew upon him, it became a certainty. 
He hurried back to tlie Imperial City, and made in- 
quiries for Sin-wan at the prison. Sin-wan, he was 
told, had obtained a scroll to pass in and out of the 
sacred precincts at any hour of that hight. 

Soh ! Sin-wan was abroad then ; and if Sin-wan 
was abroad, then it must be that Foo-chee v/as dead. 

A"i-ching-tang went from the prison straight to the 
palace of Yen How, and he descended into the vaults 
wherein was his sleeping-room, and he held the reek- 
ing flame of a saucer-lamp of earthenware over a box, 
and into the depths of the box he dived. He brought 
up two blue phials and a broken joss-stick ; one of the 
phials contained a poison, and the other a non-poison- 
ous drug ; and this last he put into his bosom. 

Then he re-clasped the box ; and at once he fell up- 
on his knees, bowing his body and folded hands up and 
down, touching the cold plaster with his forehead. 
And from his lips came groans of prayer. And he 
burnt incense to the gods. 

Then he went up again, and out from the Imperial 
precincts. He, too, was provided that night with a 
scroll of permit. 

Onwards he went, walking very fast. And as he 
treaded the intricacies of Pekin, he was engaged in a 
strange continuous effort of mind : the effort to recall 
all the English words he liad ever known. 

Once, long ago, he had served in the kitchen of an 
English family in Canton, and had then been quite a 
master of pigeon English. But now he found his vocab- 
ulary wondrously small. On he went, cudgeling his 
brains, through the dark and swarming vastness of the 
city. 

!Ni-ching-tang was a great man, if patience alone can 
make a man great, for he searched all that night for 
Sin-wan, and did not find him. So was Sin-wan a 
great man, if patience can make a man great, for ho 


Sin-Wan 


197 

searched all that night for Foo-chee, and did not find 
him. 

But towards the break of day, as he sat drinking 
sciDishu in a den, Sin-wan had an idea. He was a 
drunkard, and could be inspired by drink ; nor was he 
now sober. His idea was that Ah-lin and Foo-chee 
were not in the city at all, but without it. 

He went back once more to the dwelling of Ah-lin 
to inquire if she had not yet come home. And then, 
hearing that she had not, he said ; 

Fearing me, they have fied from the city together, 
and are now at Tung-chow. To Tung-chow, there- 
fore, I will go. For the edge of my knife has the itch 
this night, till Foo-chee scratch it for me.^^ 

But it happened that while Sin- wan was crying aloud 
from the street to inquire for Ah-lin, Ni-ching-tanghad 
come to inquire also whether one Ah-lin was there. 
And as the day was prone to break, Ni-ching-tang, far 
behind Sin- wan, was cautiously shadowing him towards 
the city-gate which leads out upon the Tung-chow road. 

Sin-wan waited there twenty minutes, and when the 
gates opened, he passed swiftly through under the 
bellies of the crowding camels, the gall of malice and 
yellow jealousy rankling bitterly in his jaundiced soul. 

To kill — to hew, and slice, /and stab — a ravening 
hunger for this red-breakfast was upon Sin-wan. He 
had had a comfortless night, a night of dark thought 
and impulse, and the hot was talking hot things 

to his head. 

And surely the gods were on his side — anxious for 
nothing that morning were they but how to provide a 
red breakfast for Sin-wan I See how they draw up the 
'curtains of night for him ; and now the day has that 
very-early-morning grayness for which one can find no 
adjective to express its utter yawniness ; and noyf^just 
as it is light enough, something makes Sin-wan turn 
his head to the left — and he sees. 

But poor M-ching-tang is struggling^ frantically 
among the mules and camels, which press inwards and 
outwards through the just-opened gateway ; and he has 
got jammed there, and the man is nearly mad in his 


iqS The Yellow Danger 

agonized struggle to be free ; for Sin-wan has passed 
through, and he has lost him, 

Foo-chee, interlaced with Ab-lin, was fast asleep, as 
was also Ah-lin, they half-propped against the outer 
surface of the wall, between two buttresses, not very 
far from the gates. 

Sin-wan walked up to them, smiling, lest one or the 
other should be awake, and see him ; and the knife- 
handle was in his palm, and the blade up his wide 
sleeves. And when he was right over them, and saw 
how they breathed heavily, and how the confidence of 
old love was in their careless embrace, he drove the 
knife first into Ah-lin with a loud breath, and she sighed, 
and died. And then, with loud breaths, he drove it 
several times into Foo-chee, and he sighed, and died. 
And then into Ah-lin again, and then into Foo-chee 
again, he drove his knife. 

Dog’s gall,” he said, as he turned away, and found 
himself face to face with Xi-ching-tang. 

What, Sin- wan, is that you ? ” said Ni-ching-tang ; 
‘‘ oh, I can see what you have been after. Ho ! ho !” 

‘‘ Those are they I told you of,” said Sin-wan. 
have done what I said I would do, Ni-ching-tang.” 

^^So I see. Sin- wan ! Well, it is the only way — the 
only way.” 

As for you, you will tell no one, Ni-chiug-tang ? ” 

Poh ! not I. For why should I ? I who have 
known you these mouths, and the two dead not at all. 
Phew ! see how they lie — still embraced. Are you 
sure they are well dead. Sin-wan ?” 

Oh, well dead.” 

^‘They should be. The man — he has one, two, 
three, four, five stabs — yes, five — ugly wounds, too. 
The knife went deep each time. What was his name ? 
— Foo-chee ? Ah, well, no more Foo-chee now — no 
more Foo-Chee.” 

‘‘ Let us be going, Ni-ching-tang. For watching 
dead dogs is not pleasant to the corners of the 
eyeballs.” 

‘‘ But I feel pleasure while looking upon them. 
Sin-wan ; and the middle of the eye is not offended by 


Sin-Wan 


199 

the sight of them embracing together — young things, 
too. But you leer obliquely upon them, Sin-wan, 
having slain them, through the corners of your eye- 
balls, and so receive disagreeable feelings from their 
sight.” 

Still, let us be going — let us be moving away, 
M-ching-tang.” 

‘‘Well, as you wish it, Sin- wan, let us be moving. 
But they lie very well together, Foo-chee and Ah-lin 
— Foo-chee, with his five gashed wounds, and her arm 
behind his neck. A young man, too, he seems to me 
— a seller -of incense-sticks, I think you said. No 
more incense-sticks now for Foo-chee — and no more 
Foo-chee now at all. Sin- wan. Well, well — well, well. 
It was Foo-chee and Ah-lin ; and now it is no Ah-lin 
any more, and no Foo-chee at all. Five stabs, too, 
and ugly wounds all. One would have done the work, 
but he got Jive, well home. Oh, they are well dead. 
Sin-wan ! — have no fear. But Foo-chee has no father, 
I hope, no brother, to avenge his death. Sin-wan ? ” 

“ I care not.” 

“ With horrid tortures. Sin-wan ? ” 

“Poh ! he was a brotherless dog.” 

“Well if that is so . . . But your walk is staggery, 
and your eye wanders. We will have a morning 
drink together in a drink-place which I know, and 
then to the day^'s work. ...” 

They re-entered the gates. A reaction had come 
now upon Sin- wan ; his nerves were unstrung from 
their high tension, and the samshu swam stalely in his 
turgid brain. He followed Ni-ching-tang as a lamb to 
the slaughter. 

Ni-ching-tang led him down to a foul, dark cellar, 
where drink was placed before them. And into one of 
the two calabash-cups Ni-chin-tang poured a liquid 
from a blue phial. 

Sin-wan had thrown himself sullenly upon a plank- 
projection near the black-earthen floor, and Ni-ching- 
tang handed him the draught. 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE HUKDRED AHD EIGHTY 

The draught was non-poisonous ; but Sin- wan had 
hardly drunk half the contents of the cup when he 
fell back, fast asleep. 

And now, when no eye but God^s could see him, 
the malice of a fiend worked and twisted in the 
face of Xi-ching-tang. He took Sin-wan’s knife, 
and he ran the edge of the blade gently, almost play- 
fully, along Sin-wan’s throat, and over his face, 
and round the roots of his pigtail, reveling in his 
sense of power, wallowing in that sweet lust of cruelty 
which brings to the Chinaman the same keen de- 
light which bodily forms of enjoyment bring to the 
AV estern. 

He ran the knife-edge along vSin-wan’s skin ; but he 
had not the least intention of hurting him. The 
pleasure of self-restraint with which he kept his itching 
fingers from violence was exquisite. 

The Chinese theory of vengeance is not, like the 
Hebrew, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth ; ” 
it is, two eyes for an eye, and thirty-two teeth for a 
tooth.” 

Xi-ching-tang could easily have killed Sin- wan, as 
he slept there ; but, had he done so, he would have 
despised himself as a weak and bungling boor. 

For vengeance to be complete and satisfying, the vic- 
tim must know wAo it is that is taking vengeance upon 
him, and why he is doing it ; and the avenger must 
know that the victim knows. Under these conditions, 
the longer the period which the vengeance occupies in 
200 


“ The Hundred and Eighty 


201 


its accomplishment, the sweeter the cud of satisfaction 
which the avenger chews. 

Ni-ching-tang intended that, for the murder of his 
son. Sin-wan should suiter weeks of torture before 
death. And although it was beyond his power to in- 
flict those tortures with his own hand (as he would 
have wished), yet he knew that it was easy for him to 
cause them to be inflicted by hands stronger than 
his own. 

He did not lose much time in the self-indulgence of 
running the knife-edge over Sin-wan’s throat. Pres- 
ently he put down the knife, and he dived his hand in- 
to Sin-wan’s bosom. From thence he took out Sin- 
wan’s permit to pass in and out of the Imperial gates, 
and also an Imperial Mandate ordering the Keeper of 
the Prison Keys to deliver a certain key to the pre- 
senter of the Mandate. 

With these two rolls in his own bosom, Ki-ching- 
tang ascended the narrow earthen steps, and at the 
entrance above met the keeper of the drink-place 
yawning his eyes into invisibility against the door. 
Ki-ching-tang told him that a man, holding position in 
the Imperial precincts, was asleep below, and did not 
wish to be roused. 

^^Let him sleep: he will wake himself,” said Ki- 
ching-tang. 

Then he sallied forth. He twisted at a steady trot 
among a number of alleys, and stopped at a gaudy 
bamboo-umbrella booth where an early-morning mer- 
chant was lounging desolately. Ki-ching-tang spoke 
some hurried words in the merchant’s ear, and the 
merchant nodded, listening, then disappeared down a 
court, and in three minutes returned, leading a mule 
by a rope. 

Ki-ching-tang scrambled on to the back of the mule, 
tossed his hand in token of thanks, drove his heels 
into the outstanding ribs, and went galloping away. 

He traversed in this way two lengths of intervening 
street, and, still galloping, passed through the city 
gate which he had lately entered with Sin-wan. He 
turned the mule’s head eastward toward Tung-chow. 


202 


The Yellow Danger 

Tung-chow, as we have said, is a village about four, 
or possibly five, miles from Pekin. It is, as it were, 
the port ” of Pekin, for it stands on the Peiho, Pekin 
itself not being a river-city. 

At Tung-chow, Ni-chin-tang had a nephew. And this 
nephew was the owner of three river-boats, two of them 
fitted with junk-sails, the third a mule boat, all three 
traders down the Peiho with Tientsin in millet, rice, 
and barley. In twenty minutes Ni-ching-tang, at the 
river-side, was talking to his nephew from the mule’s 
back. And M-ching-tang said : 

‘‘ Which of the three boats are here, Li-kien ?” 

And Li-kien replied : 

The mule-boat is here, and also the Taku, which 
lies there where you see.” 

“The Taku has a junk-sail, Li-kien ?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Then I will buy the Taku from you.” 

“ I cannot sell the Talcu, Yi-ching-tang.” 

“ It is a lie, Li-kien ; for you can, and you will. At 
the waning of the next moon I will pay you for her 
three hundred taels, which is a good reward, in silver 
pieces. For your cousin, Foo-chee, is dead — and there 
will be no more Foo-chee any more now at all, Li-kien ; 
for he has been murdered by five stabs, and ugly wounds 
all. And it is necessary, in order that his slayer should 
die with horrid tortures, that you sell me your boat, the 
Taku, without much talking. And now you see that 
you told a lie in saying that you could not, Li-kien.” 

“ It was a lie,” admitted Li-kien. 

“ And the part which you shall take in avenging 
your kinsman,” went on Yi-ching-tang, “shall be this, 
Li-kien. You will put on board the Taku rice, and 
spirit, and water, and fuel, and a rudder-oar, and 
everything which a man may want for a voyage down 
the Peiho, and a voyage over the sea, during a week, 
or more. This you will do. And this also : you will 
wait here near the Taku, all the forenoon if it is to 
be so, till you see a young man come riding on a mule ; 
he will be wrapped up from head to foot in a great 
mantle, so that not much of his face, and nothing of 


The Hundred and Eighty" 203 

his head, shall be seen. His face shall be yellow like 
a Chinaman’s, but give a keen look into his eyes, and 
you will see that he is no Chinaman, but an English 
dog. You will put him on board the Tahu, Li-kien, 
and you will hoist the sail for him, for he is without 
strength, and you will send him on his way alone. 
And, as you send him on his way, burn an incense, tliat 
he may go to his journey’s end in safety ; for, if he be 
recaptured. Sin-wan, who slew your cousin, will be 
tortured, but not killed ; but, if he escape wholly, then 
Sin-wan will be killed after he has been horribly tor- 
tured.” 

Li-kien pondered, and then objected : 

But one man in the Taku, he must needs be cast 
away, unless he be ” 

‘‘He 25 a sailor, Li-kien, and do not fear. And be 
sure you place in the Takii a drawing of China, and 
instruments such as are used by seafaring men as the 
sign-posts of the ocean. For he can doubtless read 
such things ; and it is necessary for him to arrive at 
Kiao-Chau, where he will meet with his countrymen, 
and be slain with them when they are slain : but none 
will know that it is he ; and Sin-wan will die. The 
mule you will keep till I send for it.” 

Immediately the old Chinaman turned the mule’s 
head, and galloped back to Pekin. 

All his movements now were characterized by an 
intense haste, and yet by a certain calm which did 
not forsake him. He had much to do, and yet he did 
not stop to think of anything ; he did not forget any- 
thing ; everything seemed prearranged. 

Within the prison he was unknown, and he had the 
Imperial stamp, which opens every door, in the form 
of Sin-wan’s papers. 

When he presented himself before John Hardy he 
had in his hands pigments, costume, and everything 
ready for the necessary disguise. 

At a new face Hardy started— for we see the finger 
of God where it is not, and where it is we see it not. 
John anticipated now some new torture, to be carried 
out by a still more subtle agent than Sin- wan. 


204 The Yellow Danger 

As for Ni-ching-tang, lie spoke not a word, simply 
doing his will swiftly on the impotent captive. He 
painted his face, he dressed him. And all the time he 
was cudgeling his brains to remember all the English 
words he needed to tell Hardy what he was to do. 

He found, however, that there was one fact of the 
situation which all but balked his plans. Hardy was 
weaker than Hi-ching-tang had counted upon. If 
Hardy’s mind was in as feeble a state as his body. It 
seemed certain that Sin- wan would not die. 

He took the dazed captive under the arms, support- 
ing him, and half-dragged him forth. And while J ohn 
Hardy was still wondering to what new experience of 
pain he was being hurried, he was in the open air. 
And still M-ching-tang spoke no word. 

With Xi-ching-tang’s own permit, and with Sin- 
wan’s, the two passed beyond the Imperial precincts, 
Ni-ching-tang lifting after him the lagging steps of 
Hardy. What was happening to him John could not 
dream ; but yonder, beyond doubt, was the sky, and 
there the sailing clouds, and under them a breeze of 
heaven which went wandering gladly towards the sea. 

It was not possible that he was free ? He did not 
believe it. In his profound distrust of heaven and of 
earth, he denied it. He was mad again — it was a new 
torture — the most devilish of all. 

But when he found himself beyond the gates — and 
there around him spread the wide plain — and there, 
tethered to a tree drowsed the waiting mule — and 
there above him was the vast vault, and the free and 
wandering airs — what could he think ? A strange, 
low, whimpering sound — as feeble as can be imagined 
— as thin as the plaintive whine of a very old and senile 
man — came from his lips, and two forbidden tears 
rolled down his cheeks. 

He was wrapped in a long robe of soiled silk, which 
covered the hat of straw on his head and descended to 
his feet, hiding his rags beneath ; and on his feet Ni- 
ching-tang had put felt slippers. Thus attired he was 
pushed and maneuvereJby the Chinaman to the back of 
the mule. The rope was put into his hand ; and it 


“ The Hundred and Eighty 205 

was then that, for the first time, Xi-ching-tang spoke 
a word. 

Ni-ching-tang had need of his whole English vocabu- 
lary to express now all he had to say. For quite half 
an hour he went on talking, and it was evident that 
the scheme which he was putting into execution must 
have been long meditated ; for his instructions to 
Hardy how to secure his safe arrival at Kiao-Chau were 
as minute as possible. In his uncouth and tentative 
English he gave some idea of the formation of the har- 
bor ; and he also spoke of the position in which the 
stranded IpJiigenialviy , pointing out to Hardy that the 
cruiser would serve as the chief landmark to warn him 
of his destination. He gave John his own name and 
that of his nephew. Finally, he handed John a sharp 
knife with which to commit suicide in case of recap- 
ture ; and he ended by saying : 

‘‘ Am got you anything to question me ? 

Yes : John had something, to ask. He said : 

‘‘Yes — one question." 

And he waited a minute before he asked it. 

“ I owe nothing to Yen How, do I, for my present 
freedom ?" 

He repeated the question thrice, and no sooner had 
Yi-ching-tang gathered its meaning, than instantly his 
head went shaking in a series of vigorous “ Yo^s." 

“ Yo, no, no," he went ; “ you no goee believe that, 
mind ! You getee catch — getee catch ! Yen How 
catchee you — sharp — killee you ! " 

Good ; all this, then, was not due to any clemency of 
Yen How^s. Even then — at that moment of feebleness, 
when he was still hardly beyond his prison-walls — J ohn 
Hardy shrank from hearing that there existed anything 
good, or human, or redeeming in the Chinese character. 
He was desperately and clandestinely unwilling to hear 
it. Some dim and far-off instinct even then told him 
that it would be necessary for him to go on believing 
this bad race to be wholly bad, loholly of hell ; and that 
it was in order that he might so believe it, that the 
Chinese Iron had been ordained to ent^r into his 
soul. 


2o6 The Yellow Danger 

But, with a certain reluctance, he ventured upon 
yet another question. He said : 

And you, sir — what is your motive for setting me 
free ? — Mercy ? You want poor Englishman goee 
free ? — Or you havee some other reason ? ” 

Ni-ching-tang smiled at this simplicity of the little 
foreign devil, when the meaning of the question entered 
his head. He said : 

“ Poh ! you no trouhlee head for that. Me havee 
other reasons. But that nothing for you.^^ 

Good again ! he owed nothing to them. 

Yi-ching-tang pointed along a road, and the mule 
moved. The Chinaman, whose presence in the Im- 
perial precincts was nearly due, stood a while and 
looked after the drooping figure on the mule’s back. 
Then he re-entered the city to arrange for the burial 
of his son. 

John occupied two hours in accomplishing the four 
miles to Tung-chow, and, during this time, thrice 
fainted from sheer powerlessness. 

But on the banks of the Peiho, Li-kien was duly 
waiting, and the Taku was in perfect readiness to re- 
ceive her strange white master. By the time the alarm 
had spread through the Imperial precincts that, by the 
carelessness of his jailer, the white prisoner had es- 
caped, Hardy was in the middle of the Peiho, already 
some miles below Tung-chow. 

In a wondrously short time, as the boat glided down 
the river, he began to lift his head, to observe, to 
reason, to purpose. How large was the world to him ! 
His wan eye turned whitely upward, and dwelt upon 
the sky ; one great sob thronged in his bosom for exit 
from his choking throat ; his face worked. 

The boat was a bluff craft with an erection aft, mak- 
ing her there a kind of house-boat, and with stones 
laid round a slab of iron, for cooking, for’ard. The 
junk sail could quite easily be hoisted and adjusted by 
a single man, and gave to the boat, with a fair wind 
and stream, a speed of some seven knots. In a land 
where carts are driven over land by means of wind and 
sail, as in China, the navigation of the seas and rivers 


“ The Hundred and Eighty 207 

is in a condition far from elementary. John found 
his craft pliant and ready, and the bulge of the up- 
ward-tapering lug-sail was fine to his eyes. An ex- 
hilaration of mood, ecstatic, high, grew upon him. 
The day was broad and clear, and busy with breezes. 
On either hand spread endless flat-lands, already sprout- 
ing with the tender green of barley, rice and millet. 
The river was all but deserted. 

There was an aspect, not of earth, but of Paradise, 
in the bright and balmy world. Henceforth— and he 
knew it — he would have little to do with joy, and soft 
emotion, and the throe of genial feeling ; for the gentle 
heart within him was turned to stone, or something 
resembling stone. But for the present he was too 
weak in body and mind to resist the charm of the wide 
and placid landscape, and the feeling of freedom which 
it brought. His heart was still not quite a dead 
thing. 

Yet, let us record two facts. First, that John Hardy, 
from boyhood, had been of an intensely religious 
nature ; that he had had a somewhat crabbed haWt of 
reading methodically one chapter each morning from 
the Bible ; and that his affectionate soul had overflowed 
in affection for his Maker also. And secondly, let us 
state, that on this morning of his deliverance he 
several times resisted and repelled the impulse which 
rose in him to give thanks to God. He refused. So 
rnuch had Yen How changed him. The boy had 
hardened into something more (or something less) than 
a man. 

Midway between Tung-chow and Tientsin, he left 
the rudder-oar and searched the boat. Li-kien, ap- 
parently, had forgotten nothing ; there was food and 
drink in plenty, a pot, a compass of Western make, 
and a curious instrument, which he assumed to be a 
contrivance for taking the sun’s altitude, but which 
he could not at once understand. 

He made a fire, for which the materials were at hand, 
put on some rice to boil, and resumed his place at the 
oar. 

i^ow and again a painted junk passed him^ toiling up 


2o8 


The Yellow Danger 

the river ; but he was not even at the pains to hide 
himself, as Ni-ching-tang had warned him, so sure 
was he of safety. 

At sundown he glided between the central space, 
then open, of the bridge of boats across the Peiho at 
Tientsin. At eleven o'clock, under a calm and radiant 
night, he had Taku on his starboard beam ; and soon 
he was in the open sea of the Gulf of Pechili. 

Feeling drowsy, about fifteen miles from land, he 
shipped his oar, lowered his sail, and went to sleep. 

The point of his destination was Kiao-Chau, once 
German, then very much English. 

Here, seven weeks before, one dark midnight, a 
hundred and eighty English sailors had beached the 
battered second-class cruiser Ipliigenia, and landed. 

The subsequent adventures of these men, when 
properly written, would fill volumes. At present we 
can merely glance at them. 

At the moment of landing, the Englishmen were no 
longer wholly in the dark as to the real state of things 
in China. The absence of white men both at Che- 
mulpo and Seoul, of which they knew, if not very sug- 
gestive in itself, was very suggestive when no explana- 
tion could be found of the flagless ships, which had 
chased them, except the one that these ships were 
Japanese. 

The possibility, therefore, that they would be mas- 
sacred on Chinese territory occurred to them ; and their 
object in coming to Kiao-Chau, which was not very 
remote from the sinking ship, was to throw themselves 
upon the protection of the Germans, who, as they sup- 
posed, occupied the forts of Kiao-Chau. 

Previous to this, the Germans had very strongly for- 
tified the harbor and its approaches. Its waters were 
thick with submarine mines, and two strong forts at 
each of the claws of land which formed the entrance, 
together with one on the low-lying island in the 
basin of the harbor, made the position one of con- 
siderable strength. 

The harbor is about six miles long, and lies K. by 
■VV. , and S. by E. Around it, in general, is high 


“ The Hundred and Eighty 


209 


ground, save at the northeastern entrance, where an 
area of sloping meadowland rises gradually to the 
higher levels of the inner entourage of the basin. And 
it was here that the Iphigeniay then on the point of 
sinking, was beached. 

Fifty yards away, on the brow of a slope, stood 
the N. E. fort. Though the night was dark, and rain 
fell heavily, its outlines could be made out. 

The blue- jackets held a sort of informal synod on 
the sands. There was among them only one staff-offi- 
cer, a lieutenant called Edwards, who, however, was 
wounded in the breast, and in a kind of daze. Hap- 
pily, all the special hands were in evidence except the 
surgeon, these including the chief engineer, engineer, 
and assistant engineer, the gunner, the boatswain, the 
carpenter, with the stokers, and all engine-room hands. 
Beside these there were a hundred and fifty blue- 
jackets. 

It was decided to make straight for the H. E. fort, 
and though no one present could talk German, a vol- 
unteer committee of ten men, headed by the chief 
engineer, a Mr. Murray, set off toward the rising 
ground. 

But these were careless watchmen, these Germans ! 
Where was the sentry, and the challenge, and the 
soldier’s stalk, and the rattle of the butt-end? 'No- 
where was there a light to be seen through all tlie 
dripping and desolate night. 

The ten men reached the fort to find it as solitary as 
a desert. They called, and the hills echoed their voice, 
and through the open portal the night-bird fled and 
screamed. They passed within the gateway between 
the two outer bastions, and into the courtyard, and 
thence onward through every open door. They saw 
one dead Chinaman sitting in the embrasure of a win- 
dow, grinning in old decay. But otherwise there was 
no sign of any struggle. At all events, there were no 
Germans there. Only the guns remained, and some 
ammunition, and some stores, but not a single small- 
arm. 

What to do now ? It only remained to visit the 

14 


210 The Yellow Danger 

S. W. fort, and the fort on the island. And these they 
found in the same condition. 

The Chinese had gained possession of them by kill- 
ing the unsuspecting sentries in the middle of the 
night and seizing, almost bloodlessly, the rest of the 
garrison, so to speak, as they slept in their beds. The 
captive soldiers were distributed over China for the 
celebration of Yen How^s Sabbath of blood ; and the 
forts had then, for the time being, been deserted. 

There remained no further doubt in the minds of 
the British blue-jackets as to their own fate. But they 
were resoved to sell their lives dearly. 

The Iphigenia had still a steam-pinnace uninjured, 
and in this they took turns in plying backward and 
forward between the ship and the island all the night, 
landing everything in the way of stores, small arms, 
and ammunition which might prove useful. 

The gunner, Shillitoe, counseled the occupation of 
all the three forts ; but Murray and the rest, fearing 
the result' of a division of the little army, gave their 
voice for a concentration of forces upon the island- 
fort, on account not only of its disconnection with the 
mainland, but also of the fact that it appeared to be 
the most powerful. 

This plan was somewhat unfortunate, because the 
island was uncultivated and furnished no other food 
than a scanty supply of wild orris and cassava roots, 
though there were three springs of rather brackish 
water. Moreover, at about sunrise, the movements of 
the pinnace were observed by some peasants on the 
mainland, and shortly afterward there was a consider- 
able commotion to the east and north of the bay. 
Though the work of the pinnace was not half com- 
pleted, it was seen that no further voyage must be 
attempted, nor had any effort as yet been made to 
spike the guns of the other two forts. At about 
seven, these two opened fire simultaneously upon the 
island fort. 

At this period China was awake, or at least had 
opened her early-morning eyelids ; she had tasted 
blood, and every Chinaman was feeling the thrill of 


The Hundred and Eighty 


2II 


that electrical cobweb spreading over the land, of 
which the brain of Yen How was the center. The 
artillery combat which now commenced between the 
island-fort and the others was fought not more obsti- 
nately on one side than on the other. 

But the fixed batteries of the outer posts had not 
been constructed for inward attack, while the inner 
had been constructed for outward attack. By noon, 
the two outer fortresses were in ruins. But the poor 
Iphigenia also, by which the castaways set much store, 
had been broken by the wanton Chinese almost into 
nothingness. 

And now commenced a series of strenuous and ad- 
venturous days and nights for these one hundred and 
eighty men — or rather one hundred and seventy-nine, 
for on the next day Edwards died. They had hardly 
any food ; it was necessary to get it, and to get it in the 
teeth of the armed Chinese, directed by Japanese. 
And they got it. 

Each night had its own tale of brilliant sortie, or 
crafty ruse, or ticklish enterprise, or cautiously-pre- 
meditated plan. One by one their numbers lessened — 
they became a hundred and seventy — a hundred and 
sixty. But those who remained went on furnishing 
materials for a new Odyssey ; in two weeks they were 
the most exquisitely-trained body of nien in the 
world ; every day added to them a new supremacy of 
discipline and culture ; eye, and hand, and brain were 
in it ; they could twist through the grass like snakes ; 
could climb like Alpini ; could see in the dark ; could 
shoot like machines ; could plan in deliberative council 
like statesmen. In seven weeks they were a living 
monument of the adaptability to every possible condi- 
tion of life of the nimble English race. 

But their Odyssey lacked Odysseus. It was Hamlet 
without the hero. 

To do anything of much greater importance than the 
procuring of their food, they needed a Leader ; and a 
very decent Leader indeed was on the way to join 
them. 


CGAPTEE XX 


AVHAT A FACE 

Duriftg the afternoon of the seventh day from Tung- 
chow, John Hardy, hugging the coast, arrived in the 
locality of Kiao-Ohau harbor. The solitary helmsman 
had made a good voyage, being familiar with the 
ocean- winds and their moods, and having an old com- 
radeship with the brine and spray. However, he had 
several times got wet, and every few minutes now was 
shaken by a moist cough, alternated by vomitings due 
to a constant sickness of the stomach. 

He was being wafted along by a gentle breeze, when . 
he spied a portion of a ship’s bow above the thin, in- 
audible fringe of foam which lined the coast afar. 
And at once, noting his course, he put out farther to 
sea, and lay to, ten miles from land. 

He guessed from the fragmentary look of the wreck 
that the Chinese had been busy with the English sail- 
ors of whom he had been told. At eleven o’clock, he 
ran in for the harbor. Unfortunately, all lie knew 
about it was its locality. Xi-ching-tang, indeed, had 
told him that tlie Englishmen were upon an island ; 
but when he entered the basin he saw no island, for in 
the darkness and distance the contours of the island, 
which, on the east, is near to the mainland, seemed 
part of it. 

The moon was young, just rising ; it was a night of 
stars ; things near were visible, things remote lay in a 
mystery of shadow. 

Hardy ran his bow upon a gravelly bottom near the 
east entrance, intending to mount the rising ground 


What a Pace ! 213 

and search for the island. For what he knew, he 
might be already on it. 

In this way he came to the east fort, now mostly in 
ruins. He passed through a broken arch, and saw 
guns lying at random in the court. He examined the 
battlemented square, and entered what remained of 
the heavily-armed works. But there was nowhere a 
human being. 

His search was conducted with extreme caution. 
With the same care he descended to his boat, and 
made for the opposite side, where he saw a stonework 
outline against the sky. Here the ascent was steeper; 
he scrambled up a pebbly footpath, scraped through 
some scrub, and entered the fortification. There was 
less marked destruction on this side. He examined 
bollwerkswehre and glacis, aussenwerk and donjon, and 
saw no one. Then he entered an inner court, where 
was a low building with small barred windows : bar- 
racks and mess-room. And in three of the windows 
near the ground he saw a light. 

On his hands and knees he crept toward one of the 
openings. As he drew near he could hear a sound of 
laughter, and some one protesting in harsh gibberish. 
He knew now that he was among Chinese. But he 
continued to advance, eager to acquire some sort of 
knowledge of the facts of his situation. He reached 
the window, lifted his head and peeped in. 

The room which he saw was long and surrounded by 
beds at regular intervals. On most of these lay China- 
men asleep ; three only were intently playing some 
sort of dice-game at a table on which was a lantern. 

As Hardy looked — before he could run — before he 
could cover his mouth — he was seized by a sudden 
cough which sounded through the still night and the 
quiet room. 

The three Chinamen sprang up at once, looked in 
amazement in the direction of the sound, then snatch- 
ing three rifles, and making a great noise, they rushed 
toward the door. 

Hardy, too, was off, running ; but before he could cross 
the breadth of the yard the three were out of the door. 


2I4 


The Yellow Danger 

At the moment, he was in the shadow of the buttress 
of a barbacan, and he knew that if he left it to cross 
the strip of moonlight which lay along the exit from 
the yard, he must be seen. He stood still, therefore, 
crouching in the deepest shade. 

The three, in a state of great excitement, ran toward 
the spot which he had left, and finding nothing, scat- 
tered about the yard in fiurried search within the 
deep embrasures of arches, and the black shade of 
turret and buttress. Their eager examination was 
disorganized, the second again scrutinizing a spot 
which the first had just searched, and the third, per- 
haps, following suit. 

It was all over in the space of certainly not more 
than a minute. One of the Chinamen rushed to the 
corner in which Hardy crouched, his hands groping ; 
in a few seconds he was followed by the second ; in a 
few seconds more by the third. And they dropped 
like a line of little wooden soldiers, upon which one 
blows obliquely, one after the other, stiffly, at full 
length. The knife of Hi-ching-tang was no sooner 
out of the first than it was in the second, and instantly 
in the third. Before the startled sleepers within had 
rubbed their eyes, sprung to tlieir feet, and snatched 
their weapons, he had diminished the population of 
China by three. It was the first-fruits of his vengeance. 

How, meantime, was his chance to run, and he ran. 
Thirty Chinese soldiers, however, were after him, and 
one saw him as he slipped through the exit from the 
inner to the outer courtyard. This man raised the 
hue and cry, and it became a question of running, first 
towards the outer exit, and secondly through the scrub, 
and down the steep hillside, guns popping all the 
while, and the Chinamen screaming in an ecstasy of 
excitement. 

Behind the rising ground, on the general level of 
the mainland, there was camped a half-regiment of 
the old regular army of China under a Japanese lieu- 
tenant ; and these, hearing the firing, quickly set off 
at the double up tire gentle incline at the back of the 
fort. 


What a Face ! 


2iS 

Hardy was saved from the shots of the thirty on the 
top of the plateau by doubling and bending among the 
scrub, but by the time he had plunged and scrambled 
to the bottom of the steep path, bullets were whistling 
round him. The night, however, was dim, and the 
riflemen, as they ran, shot at random. 

There lay his boat, her prow just touching and 
swaying in the gravel. If he could push her oS, and 
gain the shelter of the house-deck, he would be safe. 
Two of the Chinamen, however, who had not slackened 
their speed in order to shoot, were upon him ; and 
when he leapt to his bow, and put out the oar to shove 
off, one of them, and immediately the other, took hold 
of it. A short struggle ensued. One of the Chinamen, 
struck by a flying bullet in the nape, relaxed his hold 
and dropped ; at the same time Hardy’s power of grasp 
failed, and the oar slipped from him ; but so suddenly 
that the pulling Chinaman slid on his heels, and fell 
backward into the surf. Hardy was quick to leap 
upon him, buried his knife in his bosom, regained the 
oar, and the noxt moment had the Taku afloat. 

He hurried astern, trimmed the sail, and half shel- 
tering himself under the deck, contrived to steer, 
making farther up the harbor, where he now knew the 
island must be. 

In a minute or two the boat became the aim of the 
three hundred or more additional rifles, now arrived 
from the plain. They riddled her hull and sail, but 
she kept on her way, till there came a boom of big 
cannon from a quite unexpected quarter, and suddenly 
the splintered Takii, dipped her bow, and disappeared 
in five fathoms of water. 

The Chinese, apparently, had no heavy guns mounted 
ready for use at the fort, for they fired none ; but the 
English had ; and when the sentries reported a daring 
Chinese junk approaching the island, she was fired at ; 
and she promptly sank, riddled by her foes, shattered 
by her friends. 

In all the harbor of Kiao-Chau no Chinese craft had 
dared for weeks to appear. 

Happily the outward bulge of the island was dis- 


2i6 


The Yellow Danger 

cernible at the moment, and not more than 500 yards 
distant at its nearest point. Hardy began to swim. 
The Chinese, astonished at the sinking by the white 
men of a boat containing a white man, ceased firing, 
though a Avanton shot or two dropped about the 
swimmer. 

Panting hard, he reached the near point of the isl- 
and, where a sparse growth of thin-trunked plane- 
trees made a wood to the water’s edge. And he had 
hardly trailed his dripping form out of the surf, w^hen 
two men, springing from noAvhere, had him by the 
throat, and he was on his back with a pistol at his 
temple. 

Hardy said to himself : 

‘‘They will do well.” 

And he added aloud : 

“lam an Englishman.” 

There was a scrutiny of his face, a chuckle, a few 
exclamations, and he was on his feet. 

The search -light apparatus of the fort was out of 
order. Till he spoke, no one on the island had had the 
faintest suspicion of the truth. 

In ten minutes he was in a lighted room, Avith nearly 
all the hundred and fifty gathered round him, hands 
on knees. There Avere far more questions than answers. 
Chatter, chatter went the tongue of Jack. 

“ But you have not told us, sir, Avho you are,” said 
Murray. 

“My name is John Hardy,” he replied, “ and I am 
come to China in search of my ship, the Poiuerful, 
Can you give me any news of her whereabouts ? ” 

“ Oh, Lord ! ” cried a blue-jacket, named Brassey, 
“just hark at Powerful, is it? Why, sir, if 

you’d as much Avater in your inside to-night as the 
Powerf%iVs got, it isn’t Powerfuls you would be think- 
ing about, I don’t think.” 

“ Tliere has been a battle ? ” 

“ That there has, sir.” 

“Who won ?” 

“We did.” 

“ By how many ships ? ” 


i1 


217 


“ What a Face ! 

‘‘ The one we came here in, and two the Japs sunk/^ 

‘^The Japs 

‘‘ Ay.” 

They sunk some ships ?” 

‘‘ They did that.” 

‘^But they were our allies, were they not ? ” 

‘^Funny allies at that.” 

They gave you no warning of their real intentions, 
ril be bound,” said John Hardy. 

‘‘Not they,” some one replied, “it was bash-into- 
’em, take-me-as-you-find-me-boys, and no mistake. 
They didn’t even carry a flag.” 

“ They have broken the law of nations,” said Hardy, 
looking on the ground. Then, after a few seconds, as 
if musing, he added : “ They have violated the Law of 
Man.” 

And the words, taken in conjunction with the most 
strange, grave face from which they came, had in them 
something so solemn, and judicial, and meaningful, 
that, for a minute or two, silence fell upon the men ; and 
they looked at his bent form, somehow expecting him 
to utter something further of singular and momentous. 

But he gazed on the ground and said nothing. 

Already this gray-haired youth, this venerable strip- 
ling, had produced a profound impression upon them. 

Somebody on the outskirts of the crowd whispered to 
somebody else : 

“What a face he’s got ! ” 

And the whisper went round. And now it was : 
“ Just look at the phiz of him” ; and now it was : “I 
don’t think he’s all there”; and now it was : “Lor ! 
look at his face.” 

It was a face in which there was something thrill- 
ingly wild ; the face not merely of a judge and an 
avenger, but of a judge and an avenger come back 
from the grave, with just that hint of the Ineffable 
which makes us shudder. 

Yet he sat there simply enough, looking on the 
ground; with one elbow on his wet knee, 


CHAPTEK XXI 

MURK ay’s diary 

Mr. Murray, the nominal head at the fort — though 
in reality he was only the first among equals — on open- 
ing one of the chests brought from the Ipliigenia in 
the pinnace, found a quantity of note-paper, and as 
there were pens and ink in the fort, he bound it in 
some brown paper, wisely determining to keep a record 
of the varied days of this strangely-fated crew. 

Under date June we find as follows : — 

^th June . — Last night, near twelve, a strange thing 
happened. We sank a Chinese boat in the harbor 
with Xo. 3 south-bastion six-incher, thinking it an 
enemy. It proved to have contained an Englishman, 
named John Hardy, ship Poiverful (as he says). He 
reports himself as from Pekin in search of ship. That’s 
about all we can get from him at present. Xo explana- 
tion so far as to how he escaped death in long voyage 
through China. Something strange about him some- 
where, and men pass astonished remarks. 

Still two sacks of rice left, last of third being used 
at dinner to-day. Also two hind legs of camel with 
quarters, three small sacks roots, two jars Chinese 
spirit from the millet-farm, and about a pound of 
tobacco. The sow, Joyce says, is near her confinement, 
and a day or two should bring us great things from 
her. Harris, Tom Brown, and Daly complain of 
diarrhoea, and Machen of violent headache. Other- 
wise all well. Tom Xewton to be buried presently. 

Wi June . — Tom Xewton buried last night at ten. 
Eor last message to his wife see under Qth June. This 
^18 


Murray’s Diary 219 

morning noticed a considerable body of Chinese 
(guessed 500) march past on brow of hill east of island. 
Big dust-cloud ahead, looking like horse-artillery. 
Brassey says they mean to give us fight. But I 
disagree. Their game is to starve us out — if they 
can. 

This noon, Council. Eesolved : that at midnight 
thirty hands swim to mainland at different points, tak- 
ing Sniders in waterproof bags, and ammunition. 
To meet near lake to N. E., and make a dash for prob- 
able mules on tea-farm E". of lake. Long discussion 
of ways and means. Eesolved : first volunteer to be 
leader. To surprise of all, the stranger. Hardy, vol- 
unteered first. Had listened to discussion without a 
word, turning from speaker to speaker. Is small, and 
seems weak in chest. Sow doing well. 

10^/i Jime . — This day cook, to surprise of all, pro- 
duced pudding made of roots and honey, found, he 
says, near west stream in valley on island. First we 
heard of honey here ; lads all wild with excitement, 
and everybody clapping cook on back. Am now smok- 
ing last pipe. Tobacco done. Also last of German 
coffee, and yesterday no more sugar. Lads hope for 
unlimited supplies of honey, but I rather doubtful. 
Hot the right place even for the wild kind. 

Expedition last night very successful. Two mules 
(all there were on farm), also sack rice (brought over 
by pinnace), also a skin containing some sort of oil, 
and no one injured. Joyce says it is good for food, 
but Brassey denies, and the two came to blows. The 
men came back speaking well of Hardy, some saying 
that he means more than he says. 

Most of the day spent in washing shirts and sheets 
by hands. Harris and Brown still bad with diarrhcea, 
and now also Collins, but Daly better. 

He is an original, this man (I mean Hardy). To- 
day, while washing clothes, great discussion between 
Brassey and Davis, which nearly came to blows. Says 
Davis, ^MVhy, the man is fifty-five,” he says, ‘‘if he’s 
a day.” Brassey answers that he will lay to it that he 
is a lad of twenty-five, and not a day older. Then 


220 The Yellow Danger 

other hands join in, one saying this, and another that, 
and the lads getting warm. Hardy sitting a good way 
off, washing sheets. One says : “Why not ask him, 
and settle the question ? ” But no one volunteers to 
do that. Everybody going to have a look at sow this 
afternoon, and plenty of bets. But nothing yet to 
report. 

lltli June . — Great excitement this morning, and all 
Chinese liquor finished. Sow littered with four, and 
beauties all : one pinky- white, two pinky, white and 
black, and one pure black. Lads all ready for fun, and 
everybody determined to make a day of it. Hardy 
alone drank nothing. Brassey very rowdy, but after- 
wards got to sleep. One of mules refused to eat roots, 
and was killed in afternoon. A detachment of lads 
down by sea-shore cutting down trees for firewood 
with swords, and one hatchet. Hot an adze in fort. 
V ery slow business. Hardy recommended blasting, and 
this tried with success. But fearful anxiety beginning 
to be felt about powder and shot. Only three rounds of 
ammunition left to some of big guns, and no possibility 
apparently of making powder for ourselves. At six 
o’clock. Council. Eesolved : to make a dash in small 
hours of morning for west fort in order to seize possible 
stores and ammunition. Hardy leading. Pinnace to 
take two detachments of twenty-five each. A des- 
perate piece of business, in my opinion not yet neces- 
sary, but proposed by Hardy, who has seen fort, and 
seconded by lads. Search this afternoon for more 
honey, but without success. Men walking about with 
hands in pockets, without tobacco. 

IWi June. — Lovel, William Brown, and Jackson 
dead, and not less than thirty Chinese. I with bullet- 
hole in my left hand, very painful. Eesult : two 
barrels of powder, and a green tea-box half full of 
Lee-Metford magazine-rifle cartridges. Half of us, in 
retreat, swam across harbor-mouth from west fort to 
east. Hardy among us. Then along east side of har- 
bor by land, pursued by Chinese, and then, swim- 
ming again, to island. The toughest job we have 
done yet. Our guns, ammunition, and some of our 


221 


Murray’s Diary 

clothes, meanwhile, in boat with captured things, and 
we swimming with swords in our teeth. 

But the curious thing is this. As we walked to- 
ward our fort, the day began to break, and Hardy 
having on no shirt, we saw all his body in a queer bruised 
sort of mess, and two letters, quite distinct, an A and 
an S, looking as if they had been branded into his 
right breast. He throws no light upon himself, and 
not one has tlie pluck to ask him. It is clear that he 
is a gentleman, and it is “Sir this^’ and “Sir that” 
from all the lads to him. 

IWi June . — Says Brassey to me this noon, “ Wasn^t 
there,” says lie, “something about a John Hardy in 
the battle of Shoreham that that collier from Perim 
reported at Hong-Kong before we sailed north ? ” 
“ Yes,” I said, “ there was.” “ Then this,” says he, 
“is the man.” “There are many John Hardys,” I 
said. “But this,” says he, “is the man.” “What 
makes you think that ? ” I said. “ Everything,” says 
he. And he was so certain of it, that he partly made 
me so as well. He has gone whispering it, too, to all 
the lads, and they are talking it over amongst them- 
selves. Nobody asks Hardy, but before this day is out 
I mean to put the question straight before him. Gun- 
cleaning pretty nearly all day, and Walters, who has 
been down to the water’s edge on the east side reports 
that Chinese are heaping a lot of stones on edge of 
cliff, probably with intention of building. Let them 
build away. The four piggies doing well, and the old 
girl as pleased as punch. We shall never have the 
heart to kill them. Not a scrape of baccy, and no 
more honey. 

lUh June . — It is to be hoped that this Hardy is not 
come here to lead us all to the devil, but that is about 
what I suspect it is going to amount to. Time will 
show. He has a strong influence over the lads, and is 
all for wild schemes and adventures. Says he last 
night, most of us sitting about in the north mess-room, 
“ But what,” says he suddenly, “ are your ultimate 
aims ? ” “ Ultimate aims, sir ? ” says Brassey. “You 

don’t mean to live here always, I suppose ? ” says 


222 


The Yellow Danger 

Hardy. It’s enough for us to think of getting food 
to eat, without looking so far ahead,” says Martin Hall. 

Don’t be a fool. Hall,” says Tom Brown ; ‘‘listen to 
what the gentleman says.” “I have not said any- 
thing,” says Hardy. “I merely ask a question, which 
I leave to your rellection. If you will think it over, I 
believe you will be wise. And if you cannot find an 
answer, come to me, and perhaps I may be able to 
help you.” He very seldom speaks, this Hardy, and 
when he does, the lads listen wonderfully to him. For 
quite five or six minutes, I suppose, not one spoke a 
word after he had said this. And now they are all 
saying that he’s got some fine scheme -in his head. 
This afternoon at five. Council. Eesolved : that the 
Chinese preparations for building on cliff be investi- 
gated and de'stroyed, if necessary, between twelve and 
one to-night. Hardy proposed as an amendment : that 
an attack be at once made on Chinese village, three 
miles to S. E., for purpose of getting in large store of 
provisions in event of contingencies. But his voice 
overborne by seventy-five to seventy-three votes. This 
afternoon Day sent to wind octagonal clock in B bas- 
tion, and broke mainspring. Have not asked Hardy 
anything about battle of Shoreham, or marks on chest, 
but mean to, sooner or later. 

Ibth June . — This day extraordinary scene at Council. 
It seems that Brassey, with five or six others, came to 
Hardy about noon, a sort of deputation, telling him 
that the men had been thinking over his words of two 
nights before, and were wanting him to summon a 
Council and say what was on his mind. Hardy says 
yes, he would, as they wanted it. So about four. 
Council. Hardy stands up, the lads sprawling all 
about, on benches, on the floor, looking at him. Hardy 
has in his hand one of the three Bibles from the IphU 
genia third chest. Well, everybody waits, wondering 
now wliat is coming. Hardy begins to talk, and keeps on 
talking for half an hour. All about himself first — his 
family, where he was born; everything ; then about his 
coming to China to seek Powerful, and his capture by 
the Chinese at Pekin, Suddenly ofi he tears his shirt, 


Murray’s Diary 223 

and shows wounds and scars all over body ; and he 
points to the gray patches in his head : Chinese torture, 
he says ; some of the men wiped their eyes, so mov- 
ingly he spoke. Sometimes when his face is animated, 
I declare he looks like a lad of nineteen, and it is hard 
not to love this man somehow. Then he went on to 
speak of the Japs and their treachery to the British 
ships ; then he said that all the white men in China 
had been massacred by the Chinese ; and last of all, 
out he came with the announcement that the Chinese 
and Japanese combined are about to attack Europe. 
Every one held his breath at this, and we were all pretty 
excited by now. ‘‘Well, what are we to say of such a 
race, men ? ” says Hardy. “Do you not agree with me 
that the earth would be well rid of such a people ? ” 
“Yes!” we cry; “yes! yes!” we all shout out. 
“As for me,” he says, “I, here and now, before you 
all, and before Almighty God, devote my entire life 
henceforth to their destruction ; and I invite you all to 
take that oath with me.” And so saying, he lifts the 
Book, and kisses it. The men leapt round him at 
once. One cries out: “You are the John Hardy 
of the Shoreham battle, arenT you ? ” Hardy says 
“Yes.” Then Brassey roars out : “Will you be our 
leader ? ” and every man-jack of us cheers this to the 
echo ; and then Hardy hands Book to each of us, and 
as we kiss it, each of us grips his hand in token of 
obedience to his orders. And as the last of us grips 
his hand (that was Paddy Burke), Hardy, turning away 
from us, goes leaning out of the window, and Brassey 
says a tear was rolling down his cheek which he wanted 
to hide. I suppose there never was such a scene in 
the world ; it was just as if we were all mesmerized by 
him, some of us wanting to cry, and I as moved by his 
influence as the rest. The lads are swearing to follow 
Hardy through thick and thin. 

Expedition last night did nothing, and discovered 
little. There were merely some piles of stone and two 
carts, but without mules. In one of the carts a hard- 
backed land-turtle, which the lads brought back. But 
their climb up that steep hill as good as useless. 


224 The Yellow Danger 

From their report it is probable that the regular 
Chinese force in the neighborhood is being increased. 
Happily, perhaps, for us, this is a thinly populated 
part of the country.. Something will have to be done 
for food, and that soon. It remains to he seen what 
sort of stuff this Hardy is made of. Yo one can deny 
that we got on pretty fairly before he came. Heat 
fearful to-day, but rain now pouring in torrents 
outside. 

lull June . — At midday-mess Hardy says to lads ; 

Don’t scatter, men. I wish to talk with you at once.” 
So immediately after meal. Council. Hardy at head of 
table, I on right, Brassey on left, Tom Brown, Davis 
and Joyce sitting near. Says Hardy : You have been 
good enough,” he says, to choose me for your leader. 
I hope to prove myself worthy of your favor, hut for 
the present I prefer to consult with you, rather than to 
give you orders. Here you are, a splendidly trained 
set of fellows, and Englishmen — 148 of us. I believe 
we might be able to do something more for our country 
and ourselves than killing a few Chinamen now and 
then. The thing is to know what we want to do, and 
to set about it in the right way ; and, as a rule, the 
right way is sure to be the simplest way.” Hear, 
hear,” says Brassey, who is a regular champion of 
Hardy’s, and everybody gives a nod at somebody else. 
‘MV ell, then,” says Hardy, “but no man can work 
without Tools, and every workman should stick to his 
own Tool, the carpenter to his chisel, and the black- 
smith to his sledge. We, men, are sailors ; and the 
Tool of a sailor is a Ship. What we have got to do, then, 
is to get a Ship.” 

This went straight to the lads — he spoke so sweetly 
and simply to the understanding of everybody. We 
cheered, every man, though not a soul could guess 
where this ship was to come from, or what we were to 
do with it when we got it. But the mere fact of his 
saying it made the thing seem possible. 

“ A Ship, then,” goes on Hardy ; “ any sort of 
Ship, so long as we’ve got our Tool to work with. And 
you mustn’t think that I am child enough to propose 


Murray’s Diary 225 

to you anything that is impossible for you to do. I 
have studied you carefully since I have been among 
you, and 1 know what each of you can do, and what 
the whole of you together can do, and what you can- 
not do. As for ships, they are lying round you in 
plenty, only waiting for you to go and take one.^’ 

Everybody looked at him in surprise at this. 

‘‘Ships, sir ! says Brassey, “ whereabouts 

“All round the Chinese coasts, says Hardy. “I 
told you, didn^t I, that the Chinese have seized and 
massacred in a body all the Europeans they could find 
in China. Well, at the time of the massacre, there 
were, of course, merchant-ships of all nations in every 
Chinese port, and you may be sure that the Chinese 
took special care to overpower and secure the sailors 
on board these ships, lest they should escape home and 
tell what the Chinese were up to. Meanwhile, the ships 
themselves remain, probably quite empty, or perhaps 
with a few Chinese on board in charge. I myself saw 
five in Tientsin harbor when I sailed down the Peiho 
to come here, and there did not seem to be anybody on 
board. So you see we have plenty of ships and to 
spare.^^ 

“ But,’^ said I, “ hdw are you to get to them ? 

“ In the pinnace, says Hardy. 

“ The pinnace canT carry even a quarter of us,” 
said I. 

“ Then she shall carry half a quarter of us,” says he ; 
“and the rest of you will remain here till we come fot 
you in the ship.” 

“ But how are the rest of us to live without the 
pinnace?” said I. “ A\^e canT carry bags of rice on 
our backs across the harbor, sir.” 

“ I know that vory well,” says he, “ and that is why 
I proposed to you the day before yesterday to make a 
raid on a village, instead of going to search into what 
the Chinese are building, which does not immediately 
concern us. What we have to do, in the first place, is 
to get in a good stock of provisions by means of a se- 
ries of bold and well-planned raids into the thinly-pop- 
ulated country round, first crushing the small Chineso 

x5 


226 


The Yellow Danger 

battalion, if necessary ; and when we have enough 
stores, both for us who go, and you who remain, then, 
and not before, some of us will set off in the pinnace. 
That seems to me good sense.” 

‘^And to me!” cries Brassey, with a wave of 
the hand. ^^And to me,” goes the cry down the 
benches. 

“ But,” said I, “ when we have got our ship, what 
do we do with her — go home ? ” 

No — that is not precisely what we swore to do,” 
says Hardy. “As to what we will do with our ship, I 
have got a plan which I feel confident you will approve 
when I lay it before you. But there is a good deal to 
be done first, and I won’t trouble you with that now. 
The first thing I want every man to set his mind upon 
is to bring me into the fort here a live Chinaman with 
two sound legs. Without that nothing can be done.” 

At this our astonishment knew no bounds. A live 
Chinaman ! 

“ And may I ask, sir,” said I, “ what it is you want 
a live Chinaman for ? ” 

“To send him on a message,” says he. “ It is the 
answer which he will bring back which will make our 
ship of any use to us.” 

“ He won’t come back,” said I. 

“ He will,” says he. 

“ Bight you are, sir ! ” cries Brassey. 

“I will not keep you any longer now,” says Hardy. 
“ But later in the day, I will select a hundred of you 
to come with me to-night ; and I recommend you to 
look to your swords and your rifies,” 

And with that we broke up, every one forming part 
of a group to discuss our new man. The second mule 
killed to-day, and two more of our men complaining 
of bowel trouble. Joyce talking of blowing up tor- 
toise with gunpowder, and saying that they are good 
food in South Seas. Lads conversing about different 
brands of tobacco, and smelling keg. 


CHAPTER XXII ^ ^ 
Murray’s diary {continued) 

Yitli June. — Harvey, Lane, Yates, and Tom Joyce 
dead. Brassey wounded in leg, Harry Jones in 
leg, Field in shoulder, Burke in forearm, Mackay in 
forearm, Wright in groin, and I again in left hand near 
the old place — my bad luck. One or two wounds 
look ugly, but the rest not much. Bodies of Harvey, 
Yates, and Joyce with Chinese, but Lane brought 
back and died in fort. Burial to-day at 3. Xot less 
than fifty Chinese done for, says Brassey. Result: 
splendid haul of three camels (one killed in battle, and 
carcass left behind), seven mules, twelve small animals 
like sheep, two sacks millet, and five rice. Returning 
loaded from village met Chinese battalion cutting us 
off. Made quick charge, and thought they would turn 
tail, but didn’t. Sharp fight. Literally forced our 
xway through them. But our powder getting very low. 
What shall we do ? Lads very well pleased with ex- 
pedition, and speak well of Hardy. He proposes 
that one of mules be set aside for drawing one of 
Chinese carts on top of hill, to bring home haul on 
next expedition. But mules won’t eat roots, have to 
be fed on rice, and grass on island scanty. Hardy says 
salted mule-meat, but even so, weather very hot. But 
will be tried. Xo live Chinamen to be got. They know 
how to run, these Chinese. At four, Council. Re- 
solved : to repeat raid this night on village, X. W. by 
X., six miles off, according to report of Fraser and 
Brassey; Hardy looking far from well. 

[Here follows Murray’s account of three fresh raids 

227 


228 


The Yellow Danger 

too minutely described to be reproduced here, and 
conducted with varying success. In the last of the 
three Hardy did not join, being ill.] 

216'^ tJune, — x\t last, live Chinaman. Captured at 
high noon. Five lads, among them Hardy, swam one 
by one to east side, diving most of time. On cliff 
some Chinamen pouring stones out of carts for build- 
ing. Men, hiding in scrub, climb up cliff-side, no 
very easy matter with weai3ons and other things in hands. 
Peep over cliff-edge, and decide which Chinaman 
it is to be. Then rush out. Chinese off in their mule- 
carts, and a squad of soldiers, some distance off, give 
fire, but at random, taken unawares. As marked 
Chinaman turns to gallop off in mule-cart, Brassey, 
who has lasso, throws ; and lasso falls clean over China, 
man’s head, dragging him from cart, which gallops 
off alone. Splendid feat for Brassey, for Chinaman 
was not near, and Brassey has wounded leg. China- 
man quickly bound, and hustled down hillside. Pin- 
nace waiting at shore to bring lads and Chinaman, and 
Chinamen atop still banging away. But no one hurt. 
Lads say that Hardy gripped Brassey’s hand, and gave 
it a squeeze. This like Hardy’s decent way. China- 
man being very kindly treated, by Hardy’s orders. A 
brawny raw-boned brute, and seems not to know what 
to make of treatment. 

Jtme. — To-day at one. Council. Eesolved : 
that sufficient stores now in fort to last all two weeks, 
and that pinnace starts as soon as Chinaman is sent on 
message. Eesolved : that Chinaman be sent to-morrow. 
Hardy wishing him to grow accustomed to kind treat- 
ment before starting. Hardy has chosen to accompany 
him on voyage the following : — Brassey, Tom Brown, 
Fraser, Burke, Knollys, Leaf, Pawsons, John Jones, 
Maitland, Samuels, Clayton, Eogers, Machen, Gibbs, 
John Pound, Maunder, Chapman, and Glyn. I remain 
in charge. Practically no powder will be left when 
lads set out. To-day overhauling of pinnace, and 
preparations. Lads found some opium on China- 
man, which they smoked, and some of them still very 
queer. 


229 


Murray’s Diary 

June. — To-day great fun, and lads talking of 
sagacity of Hardy. But no one understands meaning 
of message. Chinaman brought before Hardy after 
midday meal. Hardy at table, with pen, ink, and 
paper. AVe all standing round, Chinaman looking 
queer. Hardy looks at him and says, ‘‘ You talkee 
English ? ” Chinaman makes no sign. ‘‘ Can you 
talkee English ? Yo sign. Up jumps Hardy on a 
sudden, a razor in his hand, and he seizes hold of 
Chinaman’s pigtail, as if to cut it off. Oh, save, 
savee,” cries Chinaman. Very good,” says Hardy, 

you talk English, then.” Hardy had guessed before- 
hand that he could, because Chinaman, on day of cap- 
ture, had on European felt hat like those some of 
Chinese boatmen wear at Shanghai ; that was why 
Hardy singled out this particular Chinaman. AVell, 
Hardy says, You poor man ? ” ‘‘ Me very poor,” 

says Chinaman. How much you give for one silk 
pigtail ?” says Hardy. Fifty tael,” says Chinaman. 
‘‘You got fifty tael to buy one pigtail ? ” says Hardy. 
Chinaman looks scared. “ Fifty tael ? ” says he, “no, 
no.” “ All right,” says Hardy, “ me going to cut off 
your pigtail, and me going to give you letter to carry 
Pekin. You carry letter well, and bring back true 
answer soon, me promise to give you back pigtail, and 
no do you any harm. You understand ? ” Chinaman 
trembling like a sail in the wind. But he says, “ Yes.” 
Hardy says, “Very good.” Then he turns round to 
paper, tears half a sheet, and begins to write, lads 
looking over his shoulder. He writes : 

“To Ni-ching-tang, Imperial City, Pekin. 

“You tell me quick where Japanese navy is, or me 
very likely get caught, and then me tell Yen How who 
set me free. If you can write, you write name of place 
where navy is on this paper, and also name of your 
nephew at Tung-chow, so that me may be sure the 
answer comes from you. If you no can write, you tell 
this man name of place, and name of nephew. Be 
quick, or me get caught, and tell Yen How about 
you. — John Hardy.” 

^Yhen Hardy had finished his letter, he read it aloud 


230 The Yellow Danger 

to Chinaman, and gave it to Chinaman. He said, 

If you no be back in nine days from now, me burn 
your pigtail in fire, and you no have pigtail no more.'’^ 
And with that, up he jumped to his feet, and wrap- 
ping pigtail round left hand, with two sweeps of razor 
he had it off about three inches from the root, leaving 
just enough for the man to plait it on to again. China- 
man curled and shivered, as though razor was in his 
flesh, and a fine long pigtail it is, too. Hardy then 
wrote name of ^^’i-ching-tang’s nephew, by which I am 
to verify that Chinaman really has been to Ni-ching- 
tang, and handed paper to me to keep. Nephew’s 
name is Li-kien. If Ni-ching-tang cannot read, 
Chinaman will deliver message verbally. It is clear 
that this man Ni-ching-tang has some strong motive 
for telling real truth to Hardy, but we none of us 
know what motive is, nor why Hardy is anxious about 
station of Japanese fleet. However, we have much 
confidence in his views. Chinaman was let free, and 
taken to mainland, and much fun we all had. Pinnace 
now ready, and the nineteen men to start at midnight. 
Nearest treaty-port, according to map, is Chefoo. 
And to Chefoo they mean to go. Pinnace loaded with 
last coal in fort. Compass sextant, chronometer, stores, 
and everything we can think of on board. Weather 
stifling hot, but lads in good spirits. 

June. — Lads, apparently, got out of harbor all 
right last night. For us here the game is a waiting 
one. After to-morrow, by Hardy’s orders, a man to 
be always on the lookout near the east fort during 
night. If lads get a ship, she will show three lights 
in a triangle to let us know when she comes. They 
will send boats ashore to east headland, to take us off, 
we swimming to east side of harbor, and taking all live 
stock still left. If Chinaman not come back by the time 
Hardy returns, nothing to be done, and red light to be 
shown by sentry to ship. This day killed the sow. 
The lads yawning, and spoiling for a fight.” 

[Six days of the diary follow, containing nothing 
but trivial details of the life of the fort, and the ac- 
count of a massing of some two thousand Chinese in 


Murray’s Diary 231 

the locality. Tlie next entry of importance is on the 
1st July.] 

July . — This day at noon, Chinaman spied on east 
shore of mainland making signals. Great excitement 
among lads, who have been dull. Sent two men to 
fetch Chinaman over, and the fuss that beggar made 
about coming into water lasted nearly an hour. At last 
lads managed to bring him over between them. China- 
man handed me Hardy’s note to Xi-ching-tang, and 
underneath in English letters, just legible, the" words 
“Xagasaki” and ‘‘Li-kien.” It is clear, then, that 
Chinaman did his work well, and the only thing open 
to doubt is whether Xi-ching-tang has told the 
truth in saying that Jap navy is at Xagasaki. China- 
man trembling with eagerness to get back pigtail, 
doubting apparently that we would keep our word, 
and the lads having great sport in making him think 
that we wouldn’t. Pigtail produced at last, and lads 
lashing one another with it all over the place, to China- 
man’s agony. Then pigtail given to Chinaman, to his 
great joy. But I don’t think it prudent to let him go 
free, and am keeping him prisoner for some time yet. 

July . — Some lads sent out to scout, report con- 
tinued massing of Chinese tents on plain to S.W., 500 
counted, and we here without the power of firing three 
rounds of shot. Heaven only grant that Hardy turns 
up trumps. The men seem to take him with perfect 
confidence, and the lapse of time makes no difference 
to them. It is wonderful to me how thoroughly Hardy 
has got over them. I never saw anything like it. The 
two hind-quarters of sow completely spoiled owing to 
heat, and the men all saying it is head cook’s fault, 
and he very sulky. 

[On 3d July there is no entry.] 

Uh July . — Here we are, every man- jack of us, on 
board a very smart and spanking little German barque 
called the Conrad, a thing of about 400 tons, and we 
making straight for Xagasaki, God only knows what 
for. However, everybody in the best of spirits, and 
the lads ready for any game. This man Hardy is, in 
my opinion, as wild a creature as ever drew the breath 


232 The Yellow Danger 

of life, and yet it would be a lie if I say that I have not 
every confidence in his leadership, for I have. The 
Conrad is very high out of the water, and is scudding 
along with a good stiff breeze, the foam singing past 
the level of her bulwarks, and her deck too steep to 
walk on without gripping hold of things. She's got 
nothing in but her ballast, and not too much of that. 
So away we fiy, under all plain sail and courses — a tidy 
spread of canvas for this light thing — but toward 
what ? I am surprised at the lads : they don't seem 
to be asking themselves that question. The nineteen 
who went to Chefoo have got a fine old tale to tell of 
the capture of the Conrad^ which they accomplished at 
about ten at night, without the least trouble. There 
was nobody aboard of her but an old Chinese woman, 
and one of those frizzy dogs that the Chinese eat. 
Not content with the ship and her three boats, Hardy 
boarded two other ships in the port, and seized three 
more boats, so that, counting the pinnace, we have got 
seven boats in all, which is not bad for a little nipper 
like this. What is troubling me is the thought of pro- 
visions ; we have not enough to last us another three 
days at the present rate of going on. The ship is 
packed with men, and very far from packed with food. 
It is true, we should be in sight of Nagasaki by sun- 
down to-morrow, if this breeze lasts. But how in the 
name of Providence we are to get provisions at Naga- 
saki, even if we are not blown to the devil by some little 
Japanese gunboat, is what I don’t see. It isn't that I 
mistrust Hardy ; there can be no doubt that he has a 
head-piece, and can lead. But I am a prudent man, 
and this looks to me like the wildest and maddest voy- 
age that ever was made by any crew which ever put to 
sea. 

htli 1 p. M. — Breeze continued good during 

night and all morning. Conrad splendid, and twice 
did twelve knots. Lads looking out confidently for 
coast before sunset. Hardy having long private talks 
with Richardson and Lovel, both of whom have been 
Eastern traders, and say they know Nagasaki harbor 
well. Everybody getting pretty excited, and some say- 


Murray’s Diary 233 

ing Hardy ought to speak. I with gi’eat weight of 
fear at my heart, which I can’t get rid of. 

htli July, 6 p. M. — Good for Hardy ! I believe it will 
work ! though as wild a thing, I suppose, as ever 
entered into the brain of a man ! This day at five. 
Council. Eesolved : that in the event 

[Here Murray’s diary abruptly ends, and is not re- 
sumed till some weeks later. But the account which 
follows is also due to Murray, though given in a dif- 
ferent form.] 

Some little time after one hell in the second dog- 
watch on the 5th July, the Conrad's crew sighted the 
blue coast of Kiusiu, they at that time being in a very 
high-wrought state, on account of the announcement 
made to them by Hardy in the Council ” at five, of 
which Murray speaks. It may be said, by the way, 
that Murray (a homely well-meaning man, more cau- 
tious than enterprising by temperament) fails to give 
in his diary anything like a fair idea of the enthusiasm 
with which John Hardy by this time seems to have in- 
spired this crew. As a matter of fact they now fol- 
lowed him blindly, adoring his audacity, believing in 
his success, entranced by his personality. Hardy was 
for them a dazzling Angel sent to lead them to vague 
glories and to indefinite conquests, the precise nature 
of which did not, for the present, trouble their sailor- 
brains. When he unfolded his plans at the Council ” 
on the 5th, they discussed nothing, but hailed with 
rapture his proposals, eager to use their magnificent 
training for him, to do and die for him. Even Murray 
was infected. And at eight o’clock they lay-to behind 
a small island outside Nagasaki harbor, and waited 
there. 

The moon rose. And everybody looked at her. For 
in all the creation there was nothing half so interest- 
ing to this crew this night as the earth’s satellite. 

She was at her full, and gravid with light. Up she 
climbed from the East in peerless, cloudy majesty. 
At midnight she was nearly overhead, and had then 
wheeled about her a light fieecy cloud, prismic with 
rainbow hues, like Miss Loie Fuller in her serpentine 


234 


The Yellow Danger 

dance. The night was full of shining, and shining was 
on the calm water. 

The crew of the Conrad looked at her, and swore. 
John Hardy, sitting among the main-sheet ropes be- 
liind the wheel, looked questioningly at her, and mut- 
tered ; but the moon did not hear. 

It was better to be out at sea among the brisk 
breezes and the spray. At one o^clock Hardy gave the 
order to let go the sheet of the main-jib, and put the 
helm to lee. The Conrad SAvung round, and went 
snorting once more to Mother Carey and the central 
sea. 

At ten on the following night she Avas back at the 
same spot beliind the island, and there she lay-to again. 
And the sailors watched the moon arise, and saAv her 
climb to her noon, gravid with light, and saw her 
Avheel about her a light cloud a la Loie Fuller. And 
they SAvore more than ever. 

But this time there was no turning back. It Avas 
now or never. Their stores were at an end. 

John Hardy said to two men leaning over the bul- 
Avarks near him : 

‘‘ Well, by moonlight, then, lads. It may not turn 
out to be so bad as Ave think. 

And at about tAvo o’clock in the morning, six boats 
put off from the Conrad and roAved aAvay. Tavo con- 
tained nineteen men each, one tAventy, one tAventy-two, 
one tAventy-three, and one thirty-three. On board 
the Conrad eight men Avere left. 

At this hour the moon was westering far down the 
steep slope of her setting course, and all the smooth 
sea Avas branded with trails of crushed and tremulous 
silver. The old and drowsing Night, heavy with vigil, 
Avas all enkindled now and aglow, instinct with the glam- 
our of the moonbeams absorbed through many a long 
hour, like an old toper who has imbibed in solitary orgy 
all the night, and towards morning he rises gorged for 
bed, drunken, and sighing with surfeit. A flush of pal- 
lid gold suffused the fainting air. Yonder, like a lamp 
Avhich has burned through all the sIoav period of the 
dark, and in the small hours it fumes and smolders 


Murray’s Diary 23 5 

red, and gives an odor in the room, so down with 
troubled visage went the moon. Hardly a breath 
sighed through the slumbering harbor, and about its 
dark and silent islets. 

The narrow inlet of sea which forms Nagasaki port 
lies nearly north and south, and is about twelve go (three 
miles) in length. At its mouth it is only a quarter of a 
mile broad, and though it spreads out within, it is 
nowhere of very great breadth. All along its length, 
however, on both sides, the land opens up into numer- 
ous bays of some capacity. On the east side the land 
is mostly flat, and here used to be the foreign settle- 
ment,” with a water-frontage of some 700 yards, backed 
by picturesque slopes on which stood the villa-resi- 
dences of the rich merchants. On the west side, how- 
ever, where the moon went down, rose wooded moun- 
tain and steep crag. The whole is thoroughly shel- 
tered, and affords anchorage for the biggest ships. 

The six boats, furrowing their silent, silvery way, 
entered the harbor-mouth at the northwest, the lar- 
gest boat (which contained Hardy, Kichardson, and 
Brassey) leading. Any one looking at this little fleet 
would have said that each of the boats contained no 
more than two men. The rest of their crowding crews 
were stowed away in the bottoms, and lined the sides, 
lying mostly at full length, and covered with strips of 
tarpaulin. Under the tarpaulins, too, were lanterns. 
The cross-seats, except those used by the rowers, had 
been removed. 

The course lay among a number of islets, with the 
navigation of which Kichardson seemed quite familiar. 
They passed Kami-no-Shima, the site of a disused gun- 
battery ; and they crossed a stretch of sea, all white 
and encrusted with moonlight, to Takabok. 

From the cliffs of Takabok, two centuries before, 
thousands of Christians were flung by the Japanese 
into the sea, because they refused to trample upon 
the cross. And after two centuries Hardy came to 
TDcikfilDok 

Yonder, a little inland, was the burning light of the 
Iwoshima lighthouse, and, farther still, the less bril- 


236 The Yellow Danger 

liant beam of the Kage-no-Shima pharos. Farther 
still lay Pappenberg, and then Nezumi-Shima, which, 
in old quiet days was so often used as a picnic-place by 
the white residents of Nagasaki. 

One by one the islands receded, and the file of daring 
boats stole nearer and nearer upon the interior of the 
harbor, now in shadow, now adventuring swiftly across 
a patch of sea gloating in the dream of moonshine. 
And now, behind them is the last island, and before 
them the open basin, and ponderous in black slumber 
on the basin — the great navy of Japan. 

But where are the eyes of the watchmen, that they 
cannot pierce those dark coverings, and divine that 
there, beneath them, is creeping nearer and nearer an 
insidious death, a strange retribution ? The watchmen, 
if they see, cannot divine. The riddle of destiny is far 
beyond them. All droops and faints in slumber, the 
sea, and the old night, and the moon musing in her far 
western couch, and the divining of the watchmen. 

Only the best-trained crew in the world, led by 
the best leader, are awake : and they have sworn an 
oath. 

And, suddenly, a miracle of luck is revealed to them. 
For yonder all the western half of the harbor is seen to 
be lying in absolute shadow, while the eastern half is 
still glittering in aspen coruscations of white light. 
And the main part of the fleet, it is clear, is lying within 
that western gloom. 

The boats, by signal, separate. Each knows its work 
— each has its instructions. 

They are, in general, to aim at the stars, they are to 
fly at big game, they are to make for battle-ships. 

But each has separate recommendations to fulfll. 
And to every man is given his place, and his work, ac- 
cording to his powers. The company is organized into 
captains, commanders, lieutenants, as in the big navy 
at home. Hardy has been minute. 

The biggest boat of all, containing thirty-three men, 
cruises at zigzag for three or four minutes ; and then 
Hardy sees, and decides. He whispers an order ; and 
the boat — the long-boat of some European four-master 


Murray’s Diary 237 

— turns directly westward, and enters the recess in the 
coast-wall which lies north of the Tetegami dock. 
Here the water is hardly ruffled by a ripple ; and 
here the blackness of shadow is complete. Few 
points of light are visible within that gloom — only the 
white harbor-lights of a great ship. 

Her massive hull is just discernible, disparting the 
water with its outward-bulging girth. She conveys a 
suggestion of such ponderousness, that it looks as 
though no power on earth could ever move that squat 
mass an inch through the water. She is the bran-new 
giant of the Japanese navy, the terrible Hirosahi, and 
she has a crew of 576 men. 

But they sleep, and the thirty-three wake ; and yon- 
der to the far eastward, in the broad brand of shimmer- 
ing and weltering moonshine, is a boat in which some 
harbor-police are lolling on their oars, chatting, seeing 
nothing. And the bulFs-eyes of the lighthouses glare 
steadily, and the watch-lights of the ships glare steadily, 
and they see nothing. 

The oars are muffled, and the boat glides through 
shadow beneath the poop of the Hirosahiy and when a 
grappling iron steals upward and fixes in a beading of 
the stern, we may very well say that the British lion is 
crouching to spring. 

Up wriggles Brassey by the pole and gains the cor- 
nice, and, immediately afterwards, up wriggles Hardy. 
And when Hardy gains the cornice, he coughs a little ; 
and Brassey whispers in his ear a long ‘^Sh-h-h-h.” 

Yonder, eight yards from them, is the offlcer of the 
watch, walking to and fro, between the mainmast and 
the aft twelve-incher. 

The two lie on their faces, and are hidden by a ridge 
of bulwark above the cornice. Within reach is a coil 
of rope, and Brassey’s hand steals between an interspace 
of the tafirail, and with absolute noiselessness draws 
forth the coil, makes a knot round one rail, and lowers 
a rope-end to the boat. 

And now the men arrive rapidly. There is plenty of 
room to receive them. They are like files climbing an 
overhanging rampart by a spider’s fil de ioiU% 


238 The Yellow Danger 

Before the last man is up, three of them have run 
stooping forward, and the officer drops without a groan. 
Just then, from forward, a man climbs the stair to re- 
port to the officer that the lights are duly burning : it 
IS his half hourly duty. And as he reaches the top- 
most rung, the sword of Brassey is in his breast and 
he drops. 

The upper deck of the Hirosalci is a village, nearly 
five hundred feet long, but an almost deserted village. 
Just forward of the foremost funnel, two men are talk- 
ing, one leaning against the foremast, one with his 
hand resting on a boat-davit ; and a moment before 
the sword pierces him , the latter gives a light laugh at 
a jest of the other ; and the other utters a feeble cry, 
and dies. The upper deck of the Hirosalci is an Eng- 
lish village. 

They descend to the main-deck, to the fo’cas’les, to 
the cabins, to the engine-rooms, down to the turtle- 
back armor-deck, at the water-line, and everywhere, 
with the silence and the thoroughness of the Angel of 
the Passover, they smite, they slay. As a man cries 
out, he dies ; he opens his eyes, and they are sightless. 
The ship flows with blood. 

At a door forward. Hardy lifts a lantern and looks 
into an apartment in which sleeps fifteen men. He 
shuts the door upon them, secures it, and does not kill. 
They are the remnant, — the only men left alive, — and 
he will have need of them. 

In the bunkers of the Hirosalci are 700 tons of coal. 
The Englishmen are soon crowding in the engine- 
room. 

Five other ships, besides the Hirosalci, are already in 
their hands. But their work is not over. Massacre 
for massacre — John Hardy’s for Yen How’s ! Each has 
his Sabbath, and his Passover-night. 

Once more the six boats put ofi from the six cap- 
tured ships, each containing from five to nine men, all 
carefully picked and mixed, according to their special 
knowledge of ship-work ; and these six meet at an 
agreed spot opposite the patent slip of the Dock Com- 
pany. Then three of the boats’ crews abandon their 


Murray’s Diary 239 

boats, stepping over into the other three boats, and 
these three row away, each containing sixteen men. 

And each glides beneath the stern of a Japanese war- 
ship, and the men climb, and kill, and hurry to the 
engine-rooms. 

Down in smoky disaster and eclipse sets the red 
moon, and the deep dark which precedes the morning 
covers the silent tragedy. 

Three pistol-shots altogether, two in one ship, one 
in another, have been fired by the Japanese. These 
shots represent all the struggle which has taken place. 

But the darkness which has supervened, almost as 
suddenly as the fiickering-out of an out-worn lamp, 
cannot prevent the watches on other ships from per- 
ceiving that some of the fleet are pouring out an un- 
accountable smoke from their funnels. They must be 
lost in amazement, unless they conclude that the ships 
have received secret orders from the Admiral to sail. 
But they look on, and do nothing but look — for the 
Admiral is with the fleet, borne in the Hirosahi, and 
all, they think, is under his eyes. 

There is a rattle of chains, and the steam-windlasses 
are a-clank, and as the first faint hint of day tinges 
the East, the solid-looking bulk of the Hirosahi — 
moves. And one after another the nine bulks move, 
wending northwards in file. 

Nine — ^they are few in number, but they represent a 
good quarter of Japan^s weight in war-ships. And 
with that quarter. Hardy would then and there attack 
the other three-quarters, were it not that he lacks one 
thing — men. The crew of a six-inch quick-firer is five ; 
and five men represent the third part of a complete 
ship^s-crew in this sparsely-manned fleet. 

But the sound of cannon is good to the ear of Hardy, 
and in mere self-indulgence, as the Hirosahi steams 
past the island of Takabok, he sends a wire-gun shell 
among the still slumbering fleet. And the startled 
hills of Nagasaki awake, and cry aloud with many a 
voice of surprise, and the shell bursts in the engine- 
room of a cruiser. 

The shot is not answered. There is an amazement 


240 The Yellow Danger 

so profound as to resemble coma. While it lasts action 
is impossible. 

But the amazement of the Japanese navy at being 
shelled by their own Admiral-ship was, if possible, 
surpassed by the crews of the three new Chinese 
cruisers, the Hi-Clii, Hi-tien, and Hai-Shen, when, 
three days later, at noon, a fleet of nine Japanese ships 
proceeded without warning to sink them as they lay 
at anchor at Shanghai. They made no resistance to 
this overwhelming assault ; they simply sank. 

In each of the nine were a few Japanese who, by 
Hardy’s orders, had been spared to do forced labor on 
the ships. Being unarmed, they behaved well, and 
from them was learned the probable station of the 
three Chinese cruisers. 

The “ Hundred and eighty ” (so called) then pro- 
ceeded southward, and touched at Hong-Kong, intend- 
ing to take on board whatever men they could And 
there. But there were no longer any white men at 
Hong-Kong, though there was coal. 

They then turned their bows toward the West, 
among them being the Conrad, with her crew of eight. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


THE FROWK OF ENGLAND 

By the end of July, one thing at least had been 
clearly hinted to the whole of Europe : that if those 
English could not write music, they could work ; if they 
could not make pretty things, they certainly could fight ; 
if they were not elegants/^ they at least possessed 
the knack, and the secret, and the sword of the Con- 
queror. 

La morgue Britannigue ! raideur Britan- 

nique / ” — it was not then, after all, a mere insolence of 
semi-savages, but a pride based on a genuine supremacy 
of racial value and valor. 

The Continental nations were not quick in learning 
this fact : a lingering unbelief persisted in them ; and 
in learning it, they perished ; and in teaching it to 
them, Britain herself all but perished. 

The numerous campaigns had now occupied not 
quite five months ; and at the end of this time Europe 
was in a state of collapse and exhaustion far exceeding 
that which existed at the close of the Thirty Years^ 
War. 

About a league to the southwest of Liege, in a pine- 
wood, there stands a small, old-fashioned inn with 
overhanging gables, whose frontage looks directly upon 
the brown waters of the Meuse. Here the Emperor 
Wilhelm, Duke Paul, representing the Romanoffs, and 
M. Hanotaux met by appointment. 

The first was chiefly a soldier, the second chiefly a 
diplomat, the third chiefly a man of business. 

They sat in one of those vast bedrooms of old Bel- 
16 241 


^4^ The Yellow Danger 

gian inns, on the first fioor, grouped near a window 
which overlooked the river. 

The deliberation was conducted, as usual, in 
French. 

‘‘ The situation,"" said M. Hanotaux, ^^has — devel- 
oped. And developments generally demand new plans. 
The facts we know : by means of a single contretemps 
to our fieet, France finds herself with two invading 
armies in her territories, Germany with three, and 
Eussia with three. And in no case has any one of 
these eight armies been unsuccessful."" 

The defensive,"" said the Emperor, has always been 
intensely repugnant to the genius of the German army. 
It is an army of conquest and aggression. The small- 
ness of its victories in this war has been due to the 
fact that it fought on German soil."" 

Duke Paul and M. Hanotaux smiled at each other 
with their eyes. 

But the question is one of means, rather than of 
causes,"" said M. Hanotaux. Let us face this fact 
boldly : that our great enemy is aided by the geogra- 
phy of the earth. We should have beaten England — 
we none of us doubted that we should. But we have 
not. To me there seems to have been two chief rea- 
sons for this failure, which may now be more or less 
removed : First, the diversions caused by the hostili- 
ties entered upon against us by other nations ; and sec- 
ondly, the sea."" 

“ But both reasons remain ? "" said Duke Paul in- 
terrogatively. 

The sea does,"" broke in Wilhelm, but, candidly, 
it is my opinion that France should long ago have made 
peace with Italy, and Eussia with Austria."" 

Your Majesty is perhaps a little sanguine in this 
view,"" answered M. Hanotaux, “ for Italy was the ag- 
gressor, and perhaps one might say the same of Aus- 
tria. On the other hand, Germany seems to have no 
real cause for a bloody war with Sweden and Den- 
mark."" 

‘‘ But was not Sweden, then, the aggressor, mon- 
sieur, as far as Germany was concerned ? "" asked WiL 


The Frown of England ^43 

helm. Did she not wantonly attack my coasts for no 
other valid reason than that Germany was the ally of 
Kussia ? And since Denmark has joined Sweden in 
this attack, what would you have ? This, be sure, is 
not a matter for the peace-maker, monsieur, but for the 
unsparing and implacable sword ! ” 

“Still,” said M. Hanotaux, and he stroked his 
straggling barhiche de bourgeois, “ our conference, con- 
ducted in a spirit of unyielding insistence upon rights, 
will hardly result in good fruit. The fact is, that we 
each of us have to fight one great, and at least one 
smaller foe. I have inaugurated this meeting for the 
purpose of asking in the most definite terms this 
question : Since the resources of Europe are visibly 
nearing their end, do we prefer to conquer the great 
foe or the small ? Is it wisdom to persist in both 
attempts ? ” 

“ I agree with you in principle,” said Wilhelm. 

“ The principle is obvious,” said Duke Paul. 

“ And to me the details also seem obvious,” said 
M. Hanotaux quietly. “ England triumphant over 
Europe means, of course, the wiping out of the empires 
of the world — it means a Cockney earth. When I say 
‘ a Cockney earth,’ I shudder, your Majesty — I shud- 
der, M. le Due Paul, — and you shudder, too. The 
thought, you will say, is not pretty {Ce n^est pas bien 
jolie ce que fai pense-ld !). And the nations will not 
permit that ? Let us make peace with our brothers, 
that we may crush the stranger ! ” 

“A League of Europe ? ” said the Duke. 

“ A League of Europe,” answered M. Hanotaux, and 
bowed. 

AVilhelm flushed with enthusiasm, and he said : 

“ I agree ! — in principle.” 

The principle is obvious,” put in the Duke. 

“ And the details, I think ! ” cried M. Hanotaux. 

“Who will make a beginning ? ” 

“ If we say — Germany.” 

“Not Germany !” said the Kaiser. 

“ Then Russia,” said M. Hanotaux. 

“ Hardly Russia perhaps,” mused Duke Paul. “ The 


^44 The Yellow Danger 

heart of the Tsar is set upon the crushing of Sweden, at 
least '' 

Then France ! exclaimed M. Ilanotaux, since, 
you leave to France this glory.” 

You mean that you will accept the conditions de- 
manded by Italy, monsieur ? ” 

‘‘Yes, your Maiesty !” 

“ At once ? ” 

“ No — not precisely — but soon.” 

“When?” 

“ After the next great battle.” 

“ Whatever the result ? ” 

“Yes, M. le Due Paul.” 

“ But after the next great battle the southern re- 
sources of France will, as I understand it, be at an 
end,” said Wilhelm bluntly. “You will be compelled 
to do what you offer to do.” 

“Not ‘ compelled,’ perhaps, your Majesty; for the 
territorial resources of Italy will be practically at an end 
also. There remains, however, her — Navy. We have 
need of it.” 

As the inwardness of M. Hanotaux’s scheme un- 
folded with these words, it won the whole interest of 
his interlocutors. In both the royal and the ducal 
brains ripened as the same instant this thought : “A 
Second Invasion of England.” 

“ I follow you with the closest attention, monsieur,” 
said Wilhelm. 

“ And I also find yourteefiections of the profoundest 
interest, monsieur,” added the Duke. 

“France,” proceeded M. Hanotaux, “will adopt 
that line of conduct under the following conditions : 
first, she will satisfy the claims of Italy on the un- 
derstanding between her and Italy, that Italy becomes 
the ally of the Allies ; and secondly, France demands 
that the two Allies follow her example, by generally 
granting the demands of Sweden, Denmark, and 
Austria, on the understanding that they also become 
the allies of the Allies against the common foe of 
Europe.” 

Wilhelm leapt up. 


The Frown of England 245 

The thing is done, monsieur ! he exclaimed. 

It is a question of tvhen/* said Duke Paul. 

Precisely,^' said the Kaiser, ‘‘it becomes a question 
of when.” 

“ W/ie7i the next great battle between France and 
Italy has been fought,” answered M. Hanotaux. 

“ Ko ! ” leapt from the mouth of Wilhelm, in a half- 
suppressed start, and then there was pause. The fact 
was, that each desired to fight yet one battle with the 
enemy with whom it was proposed to make terms, in 
the hope and belief that the victory would be his, and 
the terms of peace therefore more advantageous for 
him. 

Duke Paul spoke meditatively ; and he said : 

“ I agree, on the condition that Eussia will make no 
terms with Sweden and Austria until after the next 
considerable battle with each of these, whether the 
battle of France with Italy has then occurred or not.” 

“And the conditions of Germany are identical,” 
said the Kaiser. 

“ Then there is nothing for it but to shake hands on 
the compact, your Majesty, and M. le Due Paul. It 
may be observed, however, that your condition, and 
mine, insures a certain and very considerable reduction 
of the not large territorial forces now at our disposal. Is 
there no departure possible from this determination ? ” 

There was no departure. The three men spoke on 
for an hour ; and as the darkness gathered, they rode 
away toward Liege, and took train in different direc- 
tions. 

The agreement, often repeated, was this : five bat- 
tles, one by France, two by Germany, two by Eussia ; 
then, if possible, a European peace and League. ^ 

Eussia would be prepared to hand over to Austria 
the doubtful legacy of the still warring Balkan States, 
and all that stretch of fair land from the Golden Horn 
to Cape Matapan ; and she would yield Finland, with 
an indemnity, to the victorious arms of Sweden ; 
Germany would buy off Sweden and Denmark ; France 
would yield to Italy the Haute Savoy, Avoie, the 
Alpes Hautes, Basses, and Maritimes, and Yar, / 


246 The Yellow Danger 

For all this large generosity there was a cause, 
bitterly near home, awfully pressing. The one thing 
now that could save Europe from England was the im- 
position upon England of the necessity to recall her 
armies to defend her own territory. 

For, at last, 100,000 British soldiers occupied all the 
Seine valley between St. Germain and Argenteuil, and, 
the headquarters of Lord Eoberts and his staff was the 
Taverne St. Eoch near the great escalier of St. Ger- 
main. A hundred thousand men — a small army when 
the war began ; an immense war-host now. There was 
no intention of attacking Paris, which required an in- 
vesting circuit of 125 miles ; — but Paris was not France. 
Normandy already was once more British ; the rest of 
France lay open ; and Italy had crossed the Isere. 

Germany’s plight was hardly less extreme. Her 
splendid legions had thrown themselves northward in 
three continuous streams to meet three branches of the 
same Teutonic race of which she was part. To the west, 
occupying Schleswig-Holstein and the upper reaches of 
the Elbe as far as Domitz, Denmark lay encamped ; to 
the east, Sweden had drawn lines of circumvallation by 
a ring of earthwork forts and Schumann gun-turrets 
round Breslau, having captured the Breslau-Posen rail- 
way ; and midway between these two was that brazen- 
browed, nimble, ever-intruding enemy, who alone had 
made possible to the others their victories. Northern 
- Germany, from Hamburg to Tilsit, had been the scene 
of the most unparalleled series of massacres — carnage 
after carnage — ever witnessed in history ; Eoyal Saxon 
Corps, famed in military history, Bismarck Cuirassiers, 
gallant Silesian and West Prussian Corps — paragons of 
the soldier’s hope of attainment — all had been flung, 
and flung in vain, into the devouring maw of war ; still 
the British came, though in ever-lessening numbers ; 
and still from farther and farther south marched the 
precious levies of the Fatherland. Seven of the twenty 
corps of the Imperial host remained ; and of these, two 
Bavarian brigades were marching upon Naumberg, 
whence a nondescript army of Socialists, Nihilists, and 
malcontents had issued from its headquarters a mani- 


The Frown of England 247 

festo to the nation, announcing the day of Liberty, and 
inviting support. 

As for Russia, she turned a fourfold face south, 
southwest, northwest and inward, and everywhere saw 
doom. The Army of India, having waited in vain for 
invasion, crossed the Helmund, annihilated at Merv - 
the still-unrecalled remnants of the Russian army of 
Turkestan, and had now, after a great victory at Novo 
'‘Tcherkask, reached Kharkov by road, with the Krem- 
lin for its objectif. Odessa, Sebastopol, and the Black 
Sea littoral were British. Of the two divisions of 
the Austrian army, one had in a single day disap- 
peared ; but another quickly sprang in its place ; and 
this, with its sister army, adopting Moltke’s principle 
^ of marching separately and fighting together, had, after 
a strenuous campaign, only surpassed for carnage by 
the great drama of blood transacting itself in Northern 
Germany, made Poland an Austrian province, and 
-crossed the sources of the Niemen. Russia was doing 
doubtful battle in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Asia Minor. 
The battleships of Sweden were at the mouth of the 
—Neva ; and in the heart of Russia itself a deep subter- 
ranean muttering, like a presage of universal earth- 
quake and overthrow, was suggested by the mere word 
‘‘Nihilist.’’ 

This, in briefest outline, was the situation on the 
Continent at the moment of the conference in the wood 
at Liege. The three nations which had primarily been 
made the tools of Yen How, regretted now their rash- 
ness. They had miscalculated the Lion. 

But, suddenly — as if it needed only the conference 
in the wood to bring them luck — their sky cleared. In 
the darkest hour of their extremity they found a hope, 
their last. 

On two days following, about two weeks after the 
meeting in the wood, two considerable victories attended 
the arms of the Allies. 

One of these was French : the 14th (or Lyons) Army 
Corps of 40,000 men met the advancing Italian Army 
- between Bourgoin and the left bank of the Rhone, and 
though outnumbered by ten thousand, gave to Italy an 


248 The Yellow Danget* 

emphatic, and indeed final, negative to her long-fought 
attempt at conquest. And at once the Aurillas brigade 
of the 13th (Clermont-Ferrand) Corps, which was all 
that was left of it, was ordered southward to cross the 
Alps and carry the threat of war into the enemy’s coun- 
try, prior to the proposition to Italy of the terms agreed 
between the Allies. 

The second victory was Eussian, and was gained in 
a far more momentous conflict over the magnificent 
British-Indian troops, which had gallantly won its way 
— from Quetta almost to the walls of Moscow. Upon this 
battle General DragomirofP, in a great, final bid for 
victory, had concentrated almost the whole remaining 
forces of his master. It was a mixed combat in which 
Ural, Orenburg and Transcaspian Cossacks fought with 
Bengal Lancers, and Turkestan Infantry Brigades with 
Eoyal Fusiliers. The battle, from the commencement . 
of which the 90,000 British were greatly outnumbered, 
was, after five hours’ massacre, won by a flanking move- 
ment of Don Cossacks. The number of the slain was 
160,000. 

Great as was the exhaustion in which this dear vic- 
tory left Eussia, the immediate result was a sudden and 
enormous increase of her prestige. And two things at 
once happened : first, Sweden, no longer acting in con- 
cert with the great arm of England, which was the in- 
centive to her audacity, became anxious to secure by 
peace her conquests in Northern Eussia ; and secondly, 
the Kaiser, knowing that terms would now be offered 
to Sweden by Eussia, became anxious to make terms 
with Sweden before her hands were freed to direct upon 
Germany the entire remnant of her forces. In this way 
it happened that nearly every one of the contending 
nations were, owing to the results of these two battles, 
strongly motived toward peace. Nor could Austria 
resist the pressure of her allies, Italy and Germany, nor 
the large amenities of Eussia south of the Balkans ; and 
in the many-sided treaty signed at Vienna on the 23d 
of August, Denmark, too, compelled by the pressure 
of events, was one of the signatories. 

It was now that the long expected had come at last. 


The Frown of England 249 

Led by the rigor of events, and led by the general 
tendency of long-maturing sentiment, an exhausted 
Europe had inaugurated a League— as the first pre- 
liminary to a renewal of her life — having for its object 
the destruction of an exhausted Britain. 

For Britain, too, was exhausted ; and already had 
lost semblance to that land of free-handed opulence 
which her sons remembered with sighs. Bull's girth 
had thinned. 

Yet if photographs at this hour could have been taken 
of all her people, and the traits of these agglomerated 
into the expression of a single face, that face would 
have been the wild and wan and gaunt visage of a Man, 
on whose brow brooded a fatal frown of indignation 
and resolve, not to be softened but by death. 

The idea of Europe was to hurl itself in its whole 
banded strength upon this diminished force. And it 
would be strange if, this time, the island could with- 
stand the continent. 

England's navy had, on the whole, done well. Up 
to the moment of the new League, she still might be 
said to command the seas. But with the League, even 
without the practically intact navy of Italy, her su- 
premacy was gone. Wi th the navy of Italy, it was twice 
and thrice obliterated. 

The new Allies, indeed, looked forward with cer- 
tainty to another great naval battle before they could 
effect their design ; but their ultimate passage to Eng- 
land was practically assured. 

And Sweden, flushed with victory, contributed an 
Army Corps ; and Russia, freed from invaders, con- 
tributed two ; and Germany one ; and France one ; and 
Austria three ; and Denmark two brigades ; and Italy 
two brigades. 

Mobil ! 

The port of debarkation was fixed at Antwerp, whose 
neutrality thus suffered willing violation, and in the 
last days of August 360,000 troops, troop-ships, and 
war-ships were hasting over sea and land to rendezvous 
upon iVntwerp. 

England, warned both from the Continent and 


250 The Yellow Danger 

America, was not in the dark. On the 5th of Sep- 
tember, when the great Armada set sail from the Bel- 
gian port, her whole available force in ships of war was 
massed in Portsmouth Harbor, all but ready to sail. 

It was on this very day, towards two in the after- 
noon, that a singular species of duel was taking place 
between two men at AYor thing. It was war in extremis, 
as bitter as, and more breathless in its mad intensity 
than, the great war going forward around them. 

One of these men was called Eichardson, and the 
other Atkins. Atkins was excise, with a salary of 
thirty shillings ; Eichardson was municipal, and ac- 
quainted with rates. His locale was the Town Hall, 
and he earned forty shillings. Both were fairly active 
young men of twenty-five. 

Apart from their steady and respectable employ- 
ments, each had a species of less reputable avocation, 
which, however, he pursued with extreme zeal, and, 
for some reason or other, was proud of. Eichardson 
said that he was on the staff of the Evening News ; 
and Atkins that he was “ on the staff of the Sun, 

This only meant that they had agreed to send any 
local news that might be of interest to those papers. 

Now, on this 5th of September, a bit of local news of 
considerable interest did, in fact, occur. For a strange- 
looking little craft, which was nothing else than a 
Maltese speronare, had arrived at the pier ; and from 
her had landed a man of uncertain age, who slowly 
walked up the pier with his eyes on the ground, made 
his way to Dixon’s Commercial Hotel half-way up the 
Pier Street, and there disappeared. The rest of the 
speronare^ s occupants had at once put to sea again. 
But it was quite an hour afterwards, before either 
Atkins or Eichardson, being employed on their Jekyll 
affairs, got the least scent of this Hyde matter. 

It was Atkins who, at the dinner-hour, first entered 
Dixon’s commercial-room. In the front of Dixon’s 

was announced a ‘‘Daily Ordinary,” the two words 

being separated by a great gap where the word “ Shil- 
ling,” now painted out, had once stood. 

As Atkins entered the room, he saw the back of the 


The Frown of England 251 

stranger, who was leaving it by a door which led to the 
bedrooms above, and he started. 

The whole interest of his life was instantly centered'' 
upon this man ; there was something in his appearance, 
liis dress, which aroused the instinct of the reporter. 
About the man was the brine and odor of the sea. 

At this time, a bit of news was to the people of 
Britain like rain to the desert. Men often spent their 
very last half-penny in buying a paper, which they 
knew could tell them little more than they already 
knew. 

We have said that Atkins was interested at sight of 
the stranger ; but this interest became a passion the 
moment that, approaching a spread side-table, he saw 
beside a soiled plate a piece of paper ; and on the paper ; 
a certain name written at the bottom of a promise-to- 
pay, together with a London address. 

It had happened that the stranger had, to begin with, 
informed Dixon that he was without a copper in his 
pockets ; and Dixon, after some demur, on the security 
of a gold ring, an honest face, and a written promise- 
to-pay, had not only trusted the stranger with a meal 
and a bed, but had lent him twelve shillings to pay his 
fare to London that night. The promise-to-pay he 
had in a moment of bustle left on the table, and Atkins 
saw it, and turned to run. 

And as he turned to run, lo, Richardson was at the 
door. And Atkins let his flat hand fall upon the paper, 
and stood leaning with careless grace. 

Richardson, on his way to Dixon% had heard of 
the arrival of the stranger, and there was a breath of 
haste at his lips. He said : 

Hullo ! Anything up ? ” 

^^'ot as I know of. You heard anything ? 

^^Xo. Seen the article in to-day’s D. T. 

‘‘No. Why are you so late to-day ? I have had 

dinner ten minutes ” 

“What, are you off ? It’s only ” 

“ I’ve got to be. Beastly job on hand — gauging busi- 
ness for Hatley’s. See you to-nig^it at the club ” 

Atkins^ diplomacy was bad, for his walk toward the 


252 The Yellow Danger 

door, for one thing, was too rapid to be natural ; and 
Kichardson had noted his statuesque pose, his rather 
pale face, and his unmoving hand on the paper. So he 
had no sooner passed through the door, than Eichard- 
son, too, had read ; and at once he, too, rushed to the 
door. But it was locked on the outside. 

The thought of summoning slow Mr. Dixon by the 
bell never even entered his head ; he simply flew to the 
window, dashed up the sash, dropped into the area, and 
climbed up to the rails on the opposite side by the 
help of a swinging coal-cellar door. 

Yonder, half-way down the street, was Atkins, run- 
ning with all his legs. Eichardson, as though life lay 
before, and death behind, was after him. 

Atkins, however, was considerably taller and fleeter, 
Eichardson being inclined to fat ; and the race was 
clearly the foremost man’s, when, suddenly, there ap- 
peared from a bye-street, with callous saunter, a 
policeman about ten yards ahead of Atkins. 

And at once Eichardson sent forth the impassioned 
shout of Stop thief ! Stop thief ! ” many times re- 
peated. 

And an instant later Atkins was flrmly gripped in 
the arms of the officer. 

‘‘Let me go, Jones, you infernal idiot !” screamed 
Atkins, “you ought to know better, you damned 
fool/ Can’t you guess — Jones, you silly ass ” 

But Jones, with zealous sense of duty, maintained 
his grip on the frantic man, till he saw the accuser 
mysteriously rush onward past the accused. And he 
tossed his head with a smile, as he relaxed his hold of 
Atkins ; and he said : 

“ Oh, well, I suppose it’s only one of their little 
newspaper squabbles ” 

So Eichardson only reached the telegraph-office 
about ten seconds before Atkins ; and the telegrapli 
man was engaged to Atkins’ sister. 

And therefore the Sun got its message some five 
minutes before the Netos ; but by some sleight-of-hand, 
or extra energy, the Neios was not outdone. It 
I’eached Piccadilly Circus some fifteen seconds before 


253 


The Frown of England 

the Sun, though the Sun was first at Holhorn ; and it 
was never quite determined to which of the two Fins- 
bury and Tooting owed their gratitude for the news. 
On the placards of each the words were the same ; 

JoHK Hakdy 

Arbived 

Englai^d. 


CHAPTEE XXIV 


BEFORE THE BATTLE 

During all that afternoon and night England, 
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland uttered its voice. 

For the 5th-6th of September the usual 5,000,000 
letters and post-cards delivered by the Post Office leapt 
to 14,500,000. This meant that the whole nation had 
taken busily to pen-and-ink, to paper and card-board. 
It meant that it was profoundly stirred about some- 
thing, that it wanted sometliing with its whole heart. 

These extra millions of letters were directed to Lon- 
don, some to the Government offices, the majority to 
the London daily papers. Not a thousandth part of 
them were ever opened. The Circulation Office of the 
London Postal Service Department was kept in a flurry 
of business all through the night. St. Martin’s in the 
morning got postmen where it could ; and the bags of 
the carriers bulged. 

When any vast collection of animals acts in this 
spontaneous way, all doing the same thing, it is that 
they are stirred by some instinct which is in unison 
with the soul of the world. The Universal Voice is, 
in truth, the voice of God. Democracy is thus a kind 
of Holy Scripture. Its will is the Decalogue. 

The nation, having eagerly drunk the news that 
John Hardy had suddenly reappeared in England as 
mysteriously as he had disappeared from it, demanded 
his presence at the impending battle. It insisted that 
no nonsense about formality or convention should 
deprive it of his possible help. Most of the people 
demanded his appointment as x\dmiral of the Fleet. 
^54 


Before the Battle 


255 

And why ? He had only been instrumental in win- 
ning a single battle for England. If they had rea- 
soned, their ardor of persuasion could not have been 
so intense. But the fact is, that their cry proceeded 
from that divine instinct for truth which, in hours of 
extremity, often inspires nations and sometimes indi- 
viduals. That Hardy was the right man, just then, just 
there, they felt intuitively ; and they did not mince 
matters in proclaiming it. 

The only person in Europe to whom the coming 
battle, or his own possible share in it, did not seem of 
direct momentous importance, was Hardy. 

For the immediate motive of the Allies was to compel 
the withdrawal of the British troops from the Con- 
tinent ; but supposing they effected a landing in Eng- 
land, there impended an enemy upon them, as Hardy 
knew, far more terrible than all the combined armies 
of several Europes ; and this enemy would at once 
compel them to do the very thing they sought to force 
upon Britain. 

And it was near — it was not far off. As he stepped 
into the train at Worthing that night, he bought a 
paper ; and in a small-type paragraph, unmarked per- 
haps but by him, he saw this quaint item of news : 

‘‘A train containing 500 Chinese has arrived at St. 
Petersburg from Vladivostok. They seem poor, and 
the object of their journey is unknown. It is the in- 
tention of the Kussian authorities to send them back 
to their own country.’^ 

Hardy muttered to himself : 

So soon. Yen How ? ” 

But in the eyes of England, of Britain, of Europe, 
the coming battle was the Greater Waterloo of world- 
history ; the final shock of this annihilating war ; the 
crowning Armageddon before a probable thousand 
years of Peace. 

If Britain failed now, she failed; and if Europe, 
then Europe failed, too. There could be little further 
struggle : for who would be there to make it ? There 
would be no fight left in the limp nations. 

Hardy reached London at eleven n. It was 


256 The Yellow Danger 

partly expecting him, for as soon as the two Worthing 
reporters had got off their news. Worthing had pricked 
its ears and heard. Dixon’s became the center of the 
town, and a moving crowd surveyed the house for 
hours. Long before Hardy appeared, all his immediate 
plans were known from Dixon ; he was then cheered 
by the full street ; only those near enough to see him 
well being mostly silent, impressed with something of 
that strangeness of expression which made the sailors 
at Kiao-Chau whisper : What a face ! ” 

London, therefore, expected him, without certainty 
as to the hour. A considerable crowd waited at 
Victoria ; but when at last it saw him, made no sign. 
They looked for a very young man, with swift glance 
and free air. They saw a man with stooping shoulders 
and gray in his long hair ; and decided that this was 
hardly he. 

But one pair of eyes knew him under his disguise. 
Old Bobbie Mason had been waiting all the evening at 
the station, wondering why his boy had forgotten him, 
had sent him no line or word. When at last he saw, 
he started with horror ; but he knew his own. 

Outside, instead of the crowd of busy cabs. Hardy 
saw a meager muster ; and his musing eye noted the 
raw-boned look of the horses. As his carriage passed 
through Buckingham Palace Eoad, a baked-potato ap- 
paratus stood before the Palace, and he noted with a 
pang the largeness of the crowd around it. The streets 
were almost deserted. Even the policemen seemed 
fewer. In a bye-street, near Oxford Circus, an old 
woman walked, and behind her a cat, with little halts 
and runs, followed persistently, sending out piteous 
feeble cries to the night. 

Old Bobbie, sitting there by his side, waited for a 
caress of the once affectionate hand. But no caress 
came. They drove onward in absolute silence. The 
only words which John had spoken were the two : 
‘^Well, Bobbie,” at the station-platform. The old 
man was frightened. 

Once only, as John was moving off to bed, the old 
butler broke out 5 and he cried; with clasped hand ; 


Before the Battle 


257 

Master John — what — what — have they done to 
you ! ” 

x\nd John answered : 

“They have tortured me to death, Bobbie, if you 
want to know.’^ 

And that was all. The rose-leaf lips were pressed 
pretty tight now. 

Early in the morning the Government knew what it 
had to do, if it meant to keep its place. In a thousand 
startling ways it learned that the nation’s will, this 
time, had got to be done. 

But the thing was officially impossible. Hardy was 
nobody, officially. The ships’ crews were complete ; 
and it was anticipated that the main portion of the 
fleet still at anchor would sail at noon. The Govern- 
ment could not exactly telegraph to a Captain or a 
Vice-Admiral, and say : “ You must give up your 
place to John Hardy, because he is a better man than 
you.” They were absolutely at their wits’ end. 

But the chief characteristic of the British race is its 
nimble way. It actually does manage in the end. 
At nine o’clock Captain MacLeod, once of the Jupiter ^ 
now of the Royal Sovereign, was seized by “ a sudden 
illness”; at half-past nine. Admiral Sir Nowell Sal- 
mon, principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, was 
at 11a Cavendish Square ; at ten, Lord Charles Beres- 
f ord, upon whom, in the hour of peril, the supreme com- 
mand had been imposed, telegraphed to the Committee 
of National Safety, and also to the Admiralty, offering 
to Hardy a joint command of the squadron : at half- 
past ten Hardy was hasting in a special train toward 
Portsmouth. 

But he went under compulsion, not knowing why. 
He had no theory of naval war. He had, indeed, won 
a battle, but — he shrank a little from this prominence. 
The truth was, he was more or less unconscious of the 
clearness of his own eyes and the valor of his own 
heart. It needed that the actual hard facts of a 
situation should be before him before he could assume 
the aggressiveness and the self-assurance of the hero. 

When on the point of setting out from Cavendish 

17 


258 The Yellow Danger 

Square, he had cut from the newspaper bought at 
Worthing the paragraph about the 500 Chinese. And 
he had written the two following letters, the first to 
Mr. Goschen at his private address : 

Dear Sir, — I am just about to set out to fight in 
the battle which you kindly allow me to attend. In 
case I should get killed, 1 am writing this letter to 
ask you if you will kindly send a ship, fiying the English 
White Ensign at her mast-head, under that the Blue 
Peter, and under that the Union Jack, to the island of 
Monte Christo, with orders to bring home what she 
will find there. I believe you will find that this will 
come in useful to you in a few weeks’ time. — I am, sir, 
your obedient servant, 

JoHiT Hardy.” 

The second letter was to the Prime Minister. It 
ran : 

My Lord, — I take the liberty to inclose you a slip 
from a newspaper about some Chinamen who have 
come to St. Petersburg, because I believe it is well 
worth your attention. In my opinion, within three or 
four weeks from now there will be some four hundred 
millions of yellow men in Europe, and perhaps in 
England, too. I have just come from China myself, so 
I ought to know what I am saying. A very great man, 
named Yen How, is the cause of all this. In my 
opinion, the very best thing England could do would 
be to withdraw at once from the Continent the armies 
she has there. — I am, my lord, your obedient servant, 

John Hardy.” 

If ever man was shocked with fright, or started at 
the keen spur of terror, it was the Prime Minister on 
reading this note. 

Yow he understood some things which had puzzled 
him. 

Hews had reached England that some American 
cruisers in Chinese waters had mysteriously ceased to 


Before the Battle 


259 

report themselves. Later had come the news that no 
intelligence could be obtained of some Italian and 
Austrian ships of war sent out to China during the 

Eastern craze.” Merchant ships from Europe had 
sailed round the Cape to the Far East, and their long- 
delayed return was still awaited. It was known that 
China and Europe were telegraphically disconnected. 

These things, at another time, might have given to 
Europe some hint of the actual facts. But during the 
preoccupation of the war, not the remotest inkling of 
the truth occurred to any one. China was a forgotten 
land. The result of the great battle in the Hwang- 
hai was still unknown in England — all was unknown. 
Hardy was the first messenger from that silent, but 
busy. Eastern world who had appeared for many a 
month. 

At the Hard a boat awaited him. He was taken on 
board the Anson^ which carried the AdmiraFs flag at 
the main, and was received by Lord Charles Beresford 
in his private cabin. 

The cheery sailor took the hand of the grave-faced 
one, and said : 

I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Hardy, on the 
merited enthusiasm and confidence which you have 
aroused in your countrymen, and I shall feel myself 
honored by your collaboration.” 

And Hardy said : 

Thank you, my lord.” 

And, after some few words, they sat together, and 
Beresford said : 

The facts, since you are ignorant of them, are 
-roughly these : the navy of Italy is practically intact. 
Of her first-class battleships, two were sunk by Eiviera 
forts, but about 130,000 tons of her 150,000 odd tons 
in this line remain, with say 16 guns over 13 inches, 
and, counting the whole fleet, 44 over 10, ^ With the 
names, tonnage, and armaments of the various ships 
you are familiar, the two lost ships being the Re Um- 
berto and the Ruggiero di Lauria, France, on the 
other hand, has lost heavily in the war ; her Toulon 
squadron of eighteen armored ships, which she had 


^6o The Yellow Danger 

reduced by those sent to the first invasion of England, 
was destroyed in the Bay of Algeciras, during an at- 
tempt to pass through the Straits. A few antiquated 
wooden things like the Colbret and the Stiffrcn, as well 
as that ratlier lame duck, the Richelieu, still remain. 

‘‘ Her Levant squadron, however, is mostly good for 
fight ; there was a brush with our East Mediterranean 
force, but the French turned tail, and were lost in a 
mist after some mutual injuries. The majority of tlie 
fifteen coast-defense iron-clads, moreover, are intact, 
and 1 have no doubt will be dragged into this final ef- 
fort. Altogether we have, I think, to reckon with a 
contribution from France of, say 96,000 tons, and this 
will include, I think I may say, the Brennus, the Sfax, 
the Trident, the two three-masted contre^torpilleurs, 
Voutour and Cosmao, the Amiral Duperre, the Levrier, 
the cruiser Troude, the Marceaii, and the Magenta, 
Those, I think, are all I can be sure of. 

‘‘ In the Baltic there have been four battles, one 
British- German, one British-Russian- German, one 
Swedish-Danish-German, and the last Swedish-Russian. 

On the state of affairs with regard to Baltic ships 
I am unfortunately not so well informed. I very much 
doubt if there remains to Sweden a single effective 
ship of war ; but, if I am not wrong, we may expect to 
to have do with a contribution from Russia and Germany 
combined of, say, 100,000 tons, one-half of which, I cal- 
culate, will be battleship weight, and the rest cruisers 
and torpedo fiotillas. Austria will send her single 
battleship and her 32,000 ton-weight in cruisers, mak- 
ing altogether, with torpedo-boats, say 40,000 tons. 
Putting all these together, I have calculated, Mr. 
Hardy, an opposition of 456,000 tons. 

‘"Very well, now. Let us turn nearer home, and 
see what force we have to oppose to this great armada. 
Britain, I assure you, has had a hard and up-hill 
fight of it. There lie around you ships recalled from 
every quarter of the globe, except China, where, I 
hear that you say, our squadron has gone to Davy 
Jones. If an invading army were to descend from, 
let us say, the planet Jupiter, they would find all our 


Before the Battle 


261 


colonies undefended. Happily our enemies are in the 
same plight. Altogether we have at our command, in- 
cluding available coast-defense ships, 156,000 tons, 
just about one-third of the enemy's force ; and if these 
figures do not fill you with a certain gravity, it is be- 
cause you are a Briton and Mr. Hardy." 

Beresford smiled as he concluded, leaning back his 
chair ; Hardy, looking upon the ground, did not 
smile. 

After a minute Hardy said . 

I take it, my lord, that after this battle there won't 
be any ships of war left anywhere ? " 

“ There will be the Japanese, Chinese, and American 
navies," said Beresford, and some things of Spain, 
with some inconsiderable Portuguese and Dutch ships. 
Europe will then have to fight with her Atlantic grey- 
hounds." 

Still Hardy did not smile. 

And what are our best ships, my lord ?" he said. 

^^Our best ships are good," replied Lord Charles 
Beresford. We have the Illustrious, the Hood, the 
Anson, the Trafalgar, the Royal Sovereign, on board 
of which you will bear the joint direction of the battle, 
though, I am sorry to say, without a flag-captain ! also 
the Centurion, the Nile, the Benboiv, the Hero. You 
will see in a few minutes for yourself. Not all the 
most modern of the modern, perhaps — but all good 
ships and true." 

‘‘ There won't be much of them left after the battle, 
my lord," remarked Hardy. 

This was obvious. Lord Charles Beresford coughed. 
And he said : 

I suppose not. But now — the case being as I have 
explained to you, what are your ideas as to a plan of 
battle, and so on ? " 

For some time Hardy was silent, perusing the ground. 
Afterwards he said : 

To be candid, my lord, I have no idea, not a single 
one. Or rather, I have One.” 

Very good, Mr. Hardy ; let me hear it, and we 
will then confer together upon it,” 


262 The Yellow Danger 

My idea is this, sir,” said Hardy, to ask you to 
let me take a cruiser, or a pinnace, or sonietliing, and 
go to the foreign fleet with a flag of truce to try and 
persuade them, by hook or by crook, to go back again 
to their own country.” 

‘‘My good Mr. Hardy!” broke from Lord Charles 
Beresford’s lips. 

“ You are astonished, my lord,” said Hardy. “ You 
guess that I am as fond of a figlit as any one, and you 
did not quite expect to hear that sort of proposal from 
me. But I make it seriously to you, and in doing so 
I forget my own inclination, and even I forget the 
glory of England. I am thinking of the good of the 
whole world. The fact is, sir, I happen to know more 
of the actual conditions of the present and the near 
future than you do, and therefore see things in dif- 
ferent proportions. I say to you. Lord Charles Beres- 
ford, that mankind is at this moment in by far the 
greatest fix in which it has ever been since the first 
man stepped ; and how it is going to get out of it, God 
only knows. You think you have been having a great 
war in Europe, and so you have. But this little great 
war of yours is not anything compared with what is 
coming upon you, sir. Believe me, for I know, or I 
would not say it. It has been man fighting with man 
all the time, has it not ? But how if all the devils in 
hell, myriads of them, my lord, suddenly break loose 
upon you ? It would be an easy thing for four mil- 
lions of yellow men, with a proper leader, to conquer 
Europe in its present state. But it is not four millions 
which are coming ; it is four liundred millions ; and 
every single one of them a devil, as I say, vomited from 
hell. I have just come from China, and that is what 
I have to tell you, sir.” 

As Hardy ceased, he lifted his hitherto careless eyes, 
and now there was a flash in them ; in the face of the 
other was horror, query, incredulity. 

There was a dead silence. Lord Charles Beresford 
had of old been himself one of the preachers of 
“ The Yellow Danger ” ; but he had preached it as a 
theory, afar oil. When he was told that it was here — 


Before the Battle 263 

had come — it shocked and appalled him as though he 
had never once heard of such a thing. 

In the midst of the silence there was a knock, and 
the Admiral’s Flag-Lieutenant entered the room. He 
said : 

The Indefatigahle has steamed in, sir, and signals 
that the enemy are now passing the Straits.” 

A chain of four British cruisers, going and coming 
within signaling distance, the remotest keeping watch 
upon the enemy, the nearest in touch with Portsmouth, 
had been told off for this duty two days previously. 

‘‘We must be looking alive, then,” said Lord Charles. 
“ The words you have spoken, Mr. Hardy, are terri- 
ble ; and the course you suggest seems to me one al- 
most requiring the authority of the civil powers. But 
now, you see, there is no time. I suppose I must take 
upon myself the responsibility of acceding to your 
views.” 

“ I believe that England will approve our conduct, 
sir.” 

“ Good. At the same time I can’t say that I have 
much faith in the success of your expedition.” 

“I li02)e it will succeed, my lord. If it does 
not ” 

“ Well ? ” 

“Then it will serve another end.” 

“ What end ? ” 

“ I shall have a good look at the enemy’s formation, 
forces, and disposition.” 

And at these words the eyes of the two men met. 

And Lord Charles Beresford smiled. 

And John Hardy, for the first time, smiled. 


CHAPTEE XXV 


THE GREATER WATERLOO 

The ships lay in harbor with fires banked and steam 
at a quarter of an hour^s notice. 

The single signal Weigh ! went up from Anson, 
and ten thousand sailor-hearts w^ent fiuttering, as the 
fat chain-links, like processions of slow-footed sea- 
tortoises, came waddling clumsily in-hoard. 

It was arranged between Hardy and Beresford that 
the plan of advance which the latter had long since 
determined upon should be put into execution and 
maintained, up to the time of Hardy’s visit to the allied 
fieet. If, after the visit, Hardy desired to take over 
the sole command, he would signal that fact through- 
out the fleet. 

At noon exactly tlie ships steamed out. At once the 
news was flashed over all Britain, and an hour later the 
churches of the land, in hamlet, town, and city, were 
thronged with worshipers imploring the Almighty to 
protect His Witness in the earth, and not to forsake 
in the hour of her extremity that chosen Xation, His 
Servant, which had proclaimed the greatness of good- 
ness, and, as far as her poor striving eyes could see, 
had loved Eighteousness, and had hated Iniquity. 

The ships passed Spithead massed in four columns 
in line ahead, flag and senior officers leading their 
columns. Hardy at the head of the starboard line in 
the Royal Sovereign and Beresford at the head of the 
extreme port. Ships had stringent instructions to keep 
their speed, and maintain an exact formation. Six 
knots, eight knots, ten knots were signaled: and it 
264 


The Greater Waterloo 265 

was evident from the position of the steam-cones that 
every ship had steam in plenty. 

It was a briglit early-Septemher day ; but as often 
happens on such days, a bluish mist, which was half a 
mist and half a luminosity, delicately veiled the dis- 
tance. 

Off Selsey Bill the second link of the chain of look- 
outs joined the fleet, an hour afterwards the third, and 
half an hour afterwards the fourth. The last, having 
come in at the rate of twenty-one knots, reported the 
enemy off AVinchelsea, steering AV. by S. in four lines 
abreast, the last line consisting mainly of troop-ships, 
and the whole occupying a vast breadth of sea midway 
between the French coast at Dieppe and the English 
at AVinchelsea. In half an hour everybody of any rank 
in either fleet had a glass at his eyes. 

It was the head signalman of the Royal Sovereign 
who first sent a thrill through his ship by reporting 
that he could make out something to eastward ; and 
five minutes later every glass could detect the enemy, 
faint and toy-like in the vague haze as mirage, or the 
other-world hues of soap-bubbles. The fleets were then 
twenty miles apart, and it was just after four, the day 
being as bright and hot as ever. 

Hardy, the glass at his eyes, said to a signal mid- 
shipman, an old Britannia shipmate of his own age : 

I want No. 98. Have her signaled alongside at 
once.” 

No. 98 was a quite new first-class torpedo-boat, the 
fastest thing in the British navy, and the first of her 
build. Only 130 tons in displacement, she yet had a 
length of 160 feet, and an I. H. P. of 2800. She steamed, 
or rushed, at the rate of thirty-three knots, and while 
she was doing it her crew were not comfortable, and 
the sea in all her neighborhood changed color. Hardy, 
before he stepped aboard her, took the precaution to 
drape himself from head to foot in oil-skins. 

Away, then, in a few minutes, drove No. 98 at full 
speed, swaying through a horrible vibratory heave of 
her flanks, like a charger which has galloped all day, 
and at nightfall he sprawls with drooped neck at the 


266 


The Yellow Danger 

inn-gate, the sweat recking on his rocking ribs ; so 
drove Xo. 98, groaning for speed, seeming far too frail 
for the power that pumped and travailed within her 
rocking ribs. 

Eastward she Hew, a mere white specter of hurrying 
foam ; and within this shroud of spray, Hardy, in his 
oil-skins, lay flat on his face, his left arm round an 
upright at the extreme bow, a double spy-glass at his 
eyes. From the masthead amidships floated a large 
white flag. 

As soon as Ho. 98 was seen to shoot ahead of the 
fleet. Lord Charles Beresford signalled slow speed, and 
the fleet proceeded at a mere crawl through the water, 
this having been previously agreed upon. It was 
Hardy’s idea that the enemy were probably ignorant 
of our exact forces, and that something might possibly 
be gained, when the facts of the battle unfolded them- 
selves, by maintaining this ignorance as long as might 
be. Hence a nearer approach was for the present 
avoided. 

In thirty-five minutes Hardy was on the deck of the 
allied Admiral-ship, the ship being the Andrea Doria^ 
and the Admiral, in virtue of seniority. Admiral Pre- 
mesnil, the Grand Duke Alexis being second in com- 
mand. 

He was led, his face half enveloped in the throat- 
flap of the oilskin, and the water streaming to his 
feet, into the Admiral’s quarters. Premesnil, a tall 
man, with gray hair, and a stately courteousness of 
manner, sat opposite Hardy, supporting a thoughtful 
brow on thumb and finger. 

May I ask, sir,” said Hardy, ‘‘are you fairly well 
acquainted with English ? ” 

“ Fairly well, sir,” answered Premesnil ; “ and that 
is not a confession, but a boast.” 

He bowed. Hardy bowed. 

“Well, sir,” said Hardy, “ I come to you to make a 
proposal of peace. But before I can say anything, I 
must ask you to slacken your speed, so as not to ap- 
proach too near to my fleet during our talk. Our fleet 
is almost stationary. I ask the same of you.” 


The Greater Waterloo 


267 

It shall be done, sir. But first let us understand 
who we are. I, as you guess, am the Admiral-in-Chief 
here : Admiral Premesnil. Who are you ? 

“ I have the Joint-command of the British fleet,” 
said Hardy,, ‘*in collaboration with Lord Charles 
Beresford. My name is John Hardy. I speak for my- 
self and my colleague.” 

Might I ask — Hardy of Shoreham fame ? ” 

‘^Yes, sir.” 

Good. Then I shall at once comply with your re- 
quest as to speed, and order you a glass of wine. You 
have had a good drenching, I see.” 

The Admiral touched a button, and gave an order as 
to speed. But Hardy declined the wine. 

He put his brow on his hand, and he began to talk 
slowly and gravely in his plain, strong Saxon, unfold- 
ing to the Admiral why he was there, going into the 
minutiae of the Chinese character, prophesying in 
simple English, hut with the conviction and effusion 
of a Hebrew Seer, the doom of Europe. 

He spoke for half an hour without interruption. 
And when he was finished the Admiral sighed, for he 
was weary, and was wondering what this all was about, 
and when it would end. He did not believe a word of 
the matter. 

The thought occurred to him : Can this be a 
ruse to keep hack the battle till darkness comes 
on ? ” 

His manner stiffened. He was narrow and tech- 
nical ; lie lacked both sight and insight. 

‘•'And what are your proposals, sir ? ” he said. 

“ I have made them ! ” said Hardy. 

“ But not seriously — come now.” 

Hardy leapt to his feet, flushing. 

“ Do you reject them, then ? ” 

“ In my own name, and in the name of my colleagues, 
without consulting them, most decidedly — yes.” 

“ Then, sir, we will flght you.” 

“ Since nothing else remains, Mr. Hardy.” 

“ I say you hon jour, monsieur.” 

‘‘ Good-day, Mr. Hardy.” 


268 


The Yellow Danger 


They bowed. Hardy passed through the door, his 
orow very pink, the Admiral following. 

Again they bowed as Hardy passed down the ship’s 
side, and never met again. 

Back tore ^^o. 98 to her own fleet. Hardy lying at 
her stern with the glass held steadily to his musing eyes. 

To the* surprise of the British, the torpedo-boat, in- 
stead of returning to the starboard column, made for 
the extreme port, steering for the Anson. 

At this time Hardy, stung by the French Admiral, 
and excited at the near approach of battle, was flushed 
in face, and about him was something of his natural 
look of youth. His blood was up. He had come into 
contact with the realities of the case — the very reali- 
ties to which his own inner nature was akin. Here 
he was at home, among native things, which he could 
manipulate without fail. His nature, as it were, rose 
and buckled on its sword, feeling its force, not doubt- 
ing its dowry. He was prepared now for any responsi- 
"hilif.v TTis soul rftp.no-ni.zed and acknowledged itself. 



He was a Hero. 


As other men discover theories and apply them to 
facts, so he, on contact with facts, evolved theories. 
He had formed a plan of the battle. 

He ran up to the Anso7i^s side with alacrity. And as 
he was hurriedly met by Beresford, he hurriedly said : 

These people will have nothing to do with peace, 
my lord. The thing now is to beat them. 

I heartily agree, Mr. Hardy. Am I to understand 
that, having seen their disposition, you are prepared to 
take over the sole command ? ” 

I am willing, my lord.” 

Good ! And have you come to tell me that ? ” 
^^INo. I came to save you a journey to my ship, as I 
was already abroad from mine. AYhat I want is a 
meeting of all captains and commanders in your ward- 
room at once. But it must be at once.” 

Beresford instantly turned, and sent a middy pack- 
ing with the order ; the flags climbed up, and a flotilla 
of forty -three hurried boats came converging over a 
wide space of sea. 


The Greater Waterloo 


269 

They were soon on board, and gathered in the ward- 
room. Beresford, half-rising trom his chair, said : 
“ Mr. Hardy will speak on my behalf and on his own, 
gentlemen,^’ and sat down again. 

Every one of those assembled eyes rested critically 
upon Hardy as he rose, he in his oil-skins, they all in 
uniform, prepared to pass judgment upon him as sea- 
man, as general, as man. 

Would he not hesitate, or blush, or strut, or stammer ? 
Would he not show himself blatant, or timorous, or 
crude, or uninitiated ? 

They none of them felt absolutely sure of him. Only 
Hardy felt absolutely sure of himself, standing on fact. 
He rose with the self-assurance and the self-uncon- 
sciousness of Cromwell, four-square to his place and 
his hour. 

This is what he said : 

We have not much time for talk, gentlemen, as 
the enemy must now be approaching us at the rate of 
eight or ten knots, and 1 do not want them to come too 
near before I tell you what I think. Lord Charles 
Beresford has calculated that they outweigh us - by 
three to one, and that is just about the truth. How I 
am not at all sure that you will all absolutely agree with 
what I am going to say about that ; but, personally, I 
am quite certain of my ground. They are three, I 
say, and we are one. Well, suppose three men attack 
me in the street, what would be the best thing, and 
what would be the worst, which I could do ? The 
best thing I could do would be to set my back against 
a wall, face them, and try to drive away at them ; the 
worst thing, would be to get in the middle of a triangle 
formed by them. We agree, of course, as to that; 
and hence the horror which all military people have 
of the phrase ‘between two fires.’ But surely, 
gentlemen, with a ship it is different ! On land you 
must not be too bold, for then you become rash ; but 
on board a ship, I give it as my opinion that the rasher 
you are, the better the chance you have ! Wliy, let me 
ask you, ought I to try to get my back against a wall, 
if three men attack me in the street ? There is no 


27o The Yellow Danger 

other reason than this : that I have only got one face 
and two hands. If I had three faces, and six hands, 
the best thing I could do would be to get in the middle 
of them, and try to finish them all off, before any two 
could attack me in one quarter. Kow a ship has four 
faces — a bow, a stern, and two sides — and under each 
of these a gallant number of hands. I believe now, 
whatever the books on naval tactics may say, that you 
will be on my side in this matter ; for one, of course, 
must not go by books, where so much is at stake. 

“But I do wish to convince you quite fully. 
Let me point out to you, then, what you know, that 
the modern battleship, as distinct from the old-time 
ones, is a far more potent thing as an attacking than 
as a self-defensive machine. The Camperclown rammed 
the Victor ta as they were playing about together, and 
down, with hardly a sigh, went the Victoria, like lead. 
If you were to armor a battleship to resist the at- 
tack of a 111-ton gun, that ship would sink without 
troubling any one to fire the gun off. And what does 
this prove ? It proves that if three ships attack one, 
the best thing which that one can do is to turn three 
faces simultaneously to those three ships, and batter 
away at them with her hundred hands, making sure 
that, not one, but four ships will have disappeared 
when the smoke clears. In other words, the one ship 
must get in the middle of the three. It is a question 
of time. 

“ Of course, gentlemen, if a ship could float with 
only one side, then it would be of great importance for 
her to avoid getting ^between two fires. ^ But when 
one side is broken, both sides sink, and it is of no 
consequence whether or not the other side is broken 
too ; while it is of consequence that that other side 
should, before it sinks, be sinking an enemy's ship. It 
is a question of time. 

“ I hope I make myself clear. I am led to express 
these thoughts to you, because they have just been 
passing most vividly through my own head ; and they 
have been doing so in consequence of the sight I have 
had of the enemy's fleet. 


The Greater Waterloo 


271 


c , 

^ “ 
'•J.V 

v> 


‘‘ The arrangement of that fleet you already partly 
know. The important point is this : that 
their first and second lines abreast consist 
of two rows of battleships, the first num- 
bering ten, and the second nine. Now 
these are arranged in echelon ; so that 
you get a series of nine triangles with their 
bases toward us, and their apex away 
from us, as you see in this drawing which 
I have made, marking the names of ships 
as far as I could determine, or guess, 
them.'’’ 

A paper with a diagram was handed 
round. 

^‘Now, gentlemen, since we have just 
nine battleships, we have it in our power 
to make a dash into these nine triangles, 
and fire away ; but in that case, every 
_ second allied battleship in the front line 
would be attacked by two, instead of 
® one, British ship ; and we really have not 
the material to spare for these luxuries. 
No : what I propose is that we spread 
ourselves out, so that six of our battleships 
shall occupy the whole length of the French 
line abreast ; and in that case, as the diagram shows us, 
our extreme starboard ship will find herself running 
into a foreign triangle, base facing ; our second ship 
into a quite distinct foreign triangle, apex facing ; our 
third ship into a third foreign triangle, base facing ; 
and so for the six ships, base facing and apex facing, 
alternately. Thus our six ships will engage eighteen 
distinct foreign ships ; and the foreigners will have one 
ship left : and we shall have — three. 

‘‘Now that one left ship of the foreigners! wish to 
have attacked by torpedo-boats No. 47, No. 53, and No. 
98 at the same moment, the instant the battle com- 
mences. They are to do nothing else till that one 
ship is in the air. 

“ Well, with regard to our three battleships left, it is 
chiefly to tell you what I think should be done with 


57^ The Yellow Danger 

them that I have called this hurried meeting. Grentle- 
men, it seems to me, really, that a perfectly whole and 
sound ship, suddenly and unexpectedly entering a bat- 
tle when it is more than half over, must be not only a 
tremendous weapon in herself, but must necessarily be 
the cause of a tremendous demoralization in the minds 
of her enemies. Hence it is that I grudge the time 
taken up by every word that I am now speaking. The 
enemy cannot be quite certain of our numbers — they 
do not know that we have these three ships. I there- 
fore want these three, at once, to retreat westward 
under forced draught till they see the smoke of the 
battle, and then, making a detour, to get behind the 
enemy’s troop-ships, and dash among them from the 
east. I have very good reasons for knowing that this 
time, it is not a matter of supreme national importance 
whether the foreigners land upon English soil or not ; 
but still, we do not want the people of Britain to be 
saying that they had a fleet, and it was not good enough 
to clear the seas of foreigners. The three ships will 
therefore worry among the troop-ships, sinking all they 
can — on tliis clear understanding, that they be not 
careful to destroy straggling ships, that they waste 
little time, that they dash as soon as may be into the 
general battle, and finish the destruction of the 
enemy. 

‘‘ The three ships which I tell off for this duty are 
the Centurion, the Beiiboio, and the Hero. 

With regard to the method to be adopted by the 
Six, the three which enter a triangle-base will, after as 
much fight as possible without lowering speed in the 
middle, pass through and ram the apex ; then if pos- 
sible, and if need be, reform, return, and fight. The 
three which enter their triangles by an apex, will ram 
the apex, enter, and fight. 

One of the greatest horrors of modern sea-battles 
I believe to be the danger we are all in of doing injury 
to our own ships. But this time we shall be so spread 
out, that nothing of that sort is likely to happen — to 
battleships at least. But to captains and command- 
ers of cruisers and composite vessels I commend that 


The Greater Waterloo 


273 

reflection. For they, passing into the second line of 
the enemy, will have a thicker fight, which, I hope, 
will be conducted on the same principles as those I have 
enunciated for battleships. 

‘‘ That is all I had to say, and now we must look 
sharp, I think, especially those Three. I wish you suc- 
cess and good-bye. After all, ships are dead things ; it 
is not ships that fight a battle, but men ; and every one 
knows that we have the right men. Kice steering, 
dash, and plenty of quick thunder : that, I think, is 
much. We ought to be able to destroy this foreign 
fleet. I have seen their Admiral-in-Chief, gentlemen, 
and he certainly did not look to me as if he knew much 
about ships and fighting.” 

A low noise of laughter ran round the room. Already 
the magic of Hardy^s plain but dashing and fascinat- 
ing personality had caught and won his colleagues. It 
was impossible not to see by the faces around him that 
he was approved. He possessed the faculty of making 
men work with enthusiasm for him. 

What about the battle-word ? ” said a captain, as 
they turned to troop way. 

Suppose we say Trafalgar 9 ” said Hardy. 

Trafalgar has been’ already used three times dur- 
ing the war,” said Lord Charles Beresford. ‘‘I had 
decided upon another, Mr. Hardy.” 

What, my lord ? ” 

“ Sliorehamf answered Lord Charles Beresford. 

And a murmur of ‘‘Hear, hear,” as the officers 
busily shook hands, spread half-way up the stairway ; 
and Jack, a short while afterwards, knowing who now 
led him, received the signaled word with high 
enthusiasm. 

By the time Hardy reached his own ship in No. 98, 
the three appointed battleships were off to the west. 

It was just three bells, first dog-watch ; and the day, 
as if lingering to see, showed hardly a tendency to 
darken. The allied fleet was now much more distinct- 
ly marked on the horizon. The British had quite a 
stripped appearance, prepared, to its mast-heads, for 
battle. 
x8 


274 The Yellow Danger 

As soon as Hardy reached his deck he ordered ten 
knots to be signaled. And at once the two masses of 
power began to approach rapidly, growing up upon 
each other, marching over the insubstantial deep, to 
meet. 

It is impossible for even the coolest heart to be pres- 
ent at the impending of a contest so august, without 
a quickened beat, a thump of awe. Even to contem- 
plate the thing from afar is horror. The weak flesh 
shrinks. The forces that rush to horrid combat are 
hardly of man — they stride out into the infinite, they 
reach the supernatural, they become ghostly. Com- 
monplace Jack suddenly finds himself face to face with 
inefiable Hell. 

They are ten miles apart — they are eight — they are 
six. The heart seems jammed in the dry throat, and 
the hands shake like reeds through which the hunts- 
man’s dog has flitted. The anticipation of the thing 
is, if possible, a greater horror than the reality. 

The five ships have pricked their course off, de- 
bouching to port, and the three appointed torpedo- 
boats are rushing like sword-fish still farther to port 
upon the single doomed ship designated by Hardy. 
Only the Royal Sovereign in the far starboard limb 
maintains her straight course to eastward. Hardy is 
in her conning- tower, and his eyes, alight with awe and 
joy, are everywhere. 

Signal after signal goes up from the Royal Sovereign. 
The speeds on both sides intensify. She is five miles 
from the two ships between which she means to run, 
and she is the foremost of her own fleet. In two min- 
utes she is four miles ; in two more three. How fright- 
ful is her Silence. . . . ! If the earth’s foot should 
slip upon its course, and she were perceived to be sail- 
ing slowly, yet with ever swifter and madder joy, to- 
ward her native sun, just so the wild heart would beat, 
and the blanched face be pinched. . . . 

The ships are no longer mere toys one to the other. 
They are two miles apart. Hardy waits, grandly pa- 
tient. They are two thousand yards apart. . . . And 
then the Royal Sovereign talks. 


The Greater Waterloo 


275 


Talks — and is answered. It is a single savage bark \ 
of Cerberus, the hell-dog, answered by two single sav- : 
age Cerberus barks — the talk of heavy guns. But be- \ 
fore the sounds have passed in pallid flight over the sea, ; 
there breaks forth a continued rolling row, like that I 
solemn roar of doom and deep-throated jabber of bub- / 
bering and thundering Etna, the mere intolerable tu- | 
mult of which throws the three crews into a sort of crazy / 



daze. It is the lighter guns which jabber. 


John Hardy forgets Yen How and his tortures. H'Y 
is a youth again. A wild hilarity lights his gallant 
eyes. 

But now he is passing midway between the two ships, 
and straight before him is the third. Not an instant 
of that precious period passes unmarked by him. 
Though his face, like all faces there, is a face of ec- 
stasy, the back of his brain is cool as ice. 

Plenty of quick thunder,” he had said — in his ro- 
bust, Cromwellian way ! And as he passed by her, the 
great Brennus reeled and plunged, with a sort of 
tragic haste, from sight. 

But now all the battle, over many a mile of troubled 
sea, is rolled in smoke ; and nimble-treading clouds 
pass in mysterious haste to and fro across the water. 
From fifteen miles away to northward there comes a 
great detonation, and the Italia is ‘‘in the air.” The 
three torpedo-boats detailed to attack her have been 
sunk, but the sixth steel-needle waits half a minute 
swinging between her screws, and bursts, and sends 
her — flying. 

Near by. Lord Charles Beresford on the Anson has 
rammed the Lepanto at a triangle-apex, and run on 
with sinking bows toward the Amiral Duperre and the 
Oldenburg ; and these two he passes with such a rain 
of wrath that not a single crew is left alive at their 
unprotected guns. 

Now, if never before, is proved the truth of Hardy^s 
saying, that the modern battleship is a destructive, 
rather than a self-protective, engine. Even as he 
gasps the sharp, short order “Earn !” the two masses 
of white cloud, within which are the Royal Sovereign 


276 The Yellow Danger 

and the Francisco Morosimi, coalesce ; they are both 
tearing along at fifteen knots in nearly opposite di- 
rections ; they close — they meet ; and there is nothing 
on earth to which to liken the shocking jar with which 
those armored powers crash. 

On both ships every living brain spins and faints ; 
and before any one has recovered consciousness, the 
Francisco Morosimi is wheeling furiously in a hollow 
basin of sea, whose waters shoot and gurgle in cata- 
racts above her leaning hull. 

All along the line of fifteen miles, from the Italia 

in the air ” to the Francisco Morosimi, in the deep, 
the tale of tragedy has accumulated ; and in three 
minutes the charge is over, and the ships are firing 
stern-guns. 

Only three minutes — and at the end of that time, 
one British battleship, the Illustrious, and four foreign 
battleships, the Italia the Francisco Morosimi, the 
Lepanto, and the Admiral-ship, are no longer there ; 
seven minutes later, and nine more foreign battleships, 
with three more British, sink, without receiving fur- 
ther injuries. Some of the crews of these last are 
afioat in boats. 

Two of the six British ships in tatters, and six of the 
enemy in tatters, still fioat. Hardy slowly opens his 
eyes, leaps to his feet, looks around, and orders his 
helm to starboard ; for there is a wide clear space 
about him. He is told, in reply, that it is impossible 
to keep steam, as the Water is rising in the stokeholds. 

This only means that he cannot ram again, not that 
the fight is quite over for him. The Royal Sovereign 
creeps wearily round ; yonder to the northwest is a 
still reeking ship, the Sfax, hardly moving ; and like 
a dying lion, intent upon dealing a last rent to his 
enemy, the Royal Sovereign, trailing her wounded 
stern, drags herself painfully forward upon the Sfax. 

The ships are alone, and the combat, dreadful be- 
cause almost stationary, lasts five minutes. Neither 
is fit for fight, yet neither will strike colors. The rain 
of shells clash midway in the air, and burst in unison, 
as if with clapping hands, and grand hurrahs of flame 


The Greater Waterloo 


277 

and sound. The ships are near ; and suddenly cries 
Hardy: ‘^Helm hard to port — hands prepare to 
board ! ” And as the Sfax discharges a last broadside 
at nothingness, the high bow of the Royal Sovereign 
creeps forward upon her quarter ; there is a small 
crash and mutual shudder of the meeting ships ; and 
the next moment, Jack, with Hardy at his head, is 
swarming, cutlass in hand, with nimble impetuosity, 
into the enemy’s aft upper-deck. The feat is un- 
expected ; the Frenchmen wince and die ; in a mo- 
ment the British tar is everywhere, and his touch is 
rough. A white-faced commodore rushes past Hardy 
on the main-deck, crying : ‘‘We yield ! we yield !” 

The stern of the Sfax sways and wobbles a little : 
she feels the suction of the Royal Sovereign which has 
quietly sunk beside her. 

Hardy stills the tumult, orders the French flag to be 
pulled down, and leaps to the conning-tower. He looks 
abroad with keenly curious eyes over the sea. Around 
him is a great dull roar, and the air is all of thin smoke. 
No human brains can now altogether divine, much less 
direct, the vast drama that is still progressing. Far 
away, beyond the ken of vision, the battle is raging 
between meeting cruisers, between torpedoes and 
contre-torpilleurs, between shot and shell, ram and 
barbette, in incalculable hurly-burly. But through 
all this confusion there has run, and runs, a thread of 
plan, on at least one side. Hardy, as far as he can see, 
is well content. He waits and waits, with wildly 
throbbing heart, for the appearance of his three 
battle-ships. 

As for himself, he is a prisoner. The Sfax has 
neither screw, nor rudder, nor boat. 

At last they come, hurrying from the eastward, 
where they have been delayed by sinking the greater 
part of the enemy’s troop-ships — in line abreast. 
Hardy’s signalman has been busy among the French 
flags, and when they approach within a thousand yards 
of the SfaXy summoned by steam-siren, he signals them 
to destroy, or capture, first the five dismantled battle- 
ships which remain. 


278 The Yellow Danger 

And with this order the battle is nearly over : the 
mere apparition of the fresh ships has all but won it. 
There is a renewed energy of firing which lasts from 
four to five minutes. And then a gradual, and finally 
deathly, silence grows upon the dun air and the callous 
green sea-surface j and night at last descends. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


THE YELLOW DAGGER 

We, writing the history, have gone into detail, and 
explained the means employed by Hardy in the winning 
of this great battle. But the mass of the British 
public, not looking narrowly into means, looking only 
at the astonishing result, hailed the victory as a per- 
plexing miracle of genius. 

That even one of the British ships should return te 
harbor was marvelous. But that three should return, 
having in tow two Italian and one French ship, after 
destroying the overwhelming remainder of the invading 
force, this seemed to approach the incredible. 

The three ships arrived at Portsmouth at eleven in 
the night. They were the Nile, the Hero, and a 
sloop, the Pelican. (The Benbow, the third of the 
ships kept by Hardy in reserve, had been torpedoed at 
the last moment.) They had on board, besides their 
own crews. Lord Charles Beresford, Hardy, and a num- 
ber of boat-loads of British and foreign sailors which 
they had picked up. The three captured ships — the 
Sfax and two Italian gunboats, — all disabled, were 
towed to Xewhaven and left. The three British, 
almost intact (the Hero had some central-battery guns 
unshipped), proceeded to Portsmouth. 

At midnight there was a sound of jubilee bells in 
London, in Liverpool, and in every considerable town 
in Britain. Watch-night processions, which showed 
no intention of going to bed, filled the streets ; and 
penniless Hodge at the door of the village ale-house 
heard a rumor, and was glad. 

^79 


28 o 


The Yellow Danger 

Better times would come now ; hard Scarcity and 
dreary outlook would be no more ; the great war was 
over ; and the True Blue had won it. 

But the real case was fearfully different. The war 
just practically ended was a preliminary : it was the 
first-piece comedietta before the tragedy, and it was 
put upon the stage by a great actor in order the better 
to set off his own grandiose strutting and storming. 
It was the streak of foam which foreruns the tidal- 
wave. 

If ever a man had a day of strain and toil it was 
John Hardy that day ; with every breath his chest 
wheezed in labor ; when he landed at Portsmouth at 
eleven, his hands hung so heavy that he could hardly 
stir tliem. His voice was gone. The sound of thunder 
still sang in his ears. 

Yet, even while preparations were being made for 
a train to conduct him to London, he wrote, and had 
sent off, a telegram. It was to the editor of the Times. 
It said : 

Kindly reserve two columns for letter from me for 
to-morrow. Will let you have manuscript by three 

A. M. 

JoHi^ Hardy.” 

At this message Printing-House Square rubbed its 
tickled hands, and was prone to dance. The editorial 
head grew dizzy with big anticipation. For copy at that 
moment from John Hardy, two columns of it, was 
copy indeed — and gratis ! It seemed too exquisite a 
thing to be true. 

‘‘But what can it be all about?” wondered the 
editor. 

“ A thrilling description of the battle ! ” suggested 
an inspired sub. 

“ Hardly that, perhaps,” doubted the Chief. 

One of the staff waited in Cavendish Square, which, 
till far into the morning, was filled by an upper-class 
crowd. A little before three the Times man drove 
from Hardy's door with the precious copy writteu in 


28 i 


The Yellow Danger 

pencil ; and not till then did Hardy’s head drop asleep 
on the table where he sat ; part of the copy he had 
scribbled in the train with half-closed eyes. 

The letter contained no thrilling description of the 
battle ; though it was thrilling enough, too, and made 
the Times editor rub his eyes in a somewhat unusual 
way. 

Was the letter a stupendous hoax ? Or was it a 
letter the publication of which would lift the Ti7nes to 
a greater pitch of glory than was ever dreamed by 
human editor in this world before. 

The Times man was questioned narrowly. From 
whom had he received the letter ? From Hardy’s old 
butler himself. There could be no mistake. 

It appeared next morning, side by side with the 
detailed description of the battle. And England 
rubbed its eyes, too, as the Times editor had rubbed 
his. 

Hardy had spoken out clearly, careless, in his belief 
in the British character, whether he threw the nation 
into a state of panic or not. He told what was coming ; 
he explained the motive with which the, European war 
had been brought about by Yen How ; he told of the 
massacre, of the action of the Japanese fleet ; he 
showed how there was not even the least possible 
chance for Europe ; how England alone, for a time at 
least, was sheltered by her sea ; and how this was the 
chance of England to come forward and prove her 
patriarchal heart, her imperial clemency, her mother- 
hood of the world. He gave his reasons for thinking 
that the fulfilment of his prophecy was near, impend- 
ing, about to happen. And he wound up with a 
series of numbered skeleton recommendations. They 
were : 

1. That the tiny remainder of the British fleet he 
utilized to seize all the merchant-ships in European 
ports ; and that these ships, together with all the 
available ships in the British mercantile marine, be 
employed, with or without the consent of foreign gov- 
ernments or individual owners, in bringing over to Eng- 
land, and in taking to America, and to Africa, such of 


282 


The Yellow Danger 

the inhabitants of Europe as could and would seek 
shelter in those countries. 

2. That America be invited to a League with Brit- 
ain, having for its object the salvation of the white 
races, and the extermination of the yellow. 

3. That the armies of Britain be at once recalled 
from the Continent. 

4. That the government at once begin to make all 
possible provision for the huge increase of population in 
Britain which would result on the appearance in 
Europe of the yellow men. 

Such were the Times’ two-columns, and under the 
last was the name, John Hardy. 

Of the sensation which this letter caused it is 
impossible to give a real idea, for there is nothing else 
to which to compare it. By noon copies of the paper 
were being bought and sold for ten guineas. 

At this hour thanksgiving hymns were being sung ; 
and the name of Hardy was being made the text of a 
thousand sermons. 

After the battle of Shoreham, he had been instinct- 
ively adopted by the race as its darling ; the battle 
of the Channel made him definitely its hero ; his letter 
made him its Leader. 

He was at once elected a member of the Permanent 
Committee of National Safety. 

Not that there was no searching of heart, no doubt- 
ing, as to this extraordinary letter. To many people 
it seemed as wild as possible. The proof which Hardy 
adduced to show that the Yellow Wave was near (if it 
was coming at all) was his contention that Yen How, 
having destroyed Europe by the European war, would 
not be sufficiently silly to wait for Europe to recover 
herself before his invasion. The argument was sound, 
if the hypothesis was sound. But where were the signs 
of his coming ? There was an “if.” 

On the whole, however, the nation had learnt to 
trust him ; and trusting him, it stood aghast at his 
awful message. 

At this time, .the people of Britain, if they had never 
been so before, was genuinely a nation, as distinct from 


The Yellow Danger 283 

a mob. They had suffered keenly together, resolved 
and acted nobly together : and they had been welded 
in the furnace-heat. By a Nation we mean a multifold 
Man. It was remarkable, about this period, how large 
an amount of attention was attracted by certain badly- 
spelled letters written to the papers. Each man felt 
himself verily part of the whole, and the government 
was upon his shoulder. It was no longer a nation of 
shopkeepers — it was a nation of Councillors. To be 
made perfect by suffering'’^ is even more true of com- 
munities than of individuals. Happy, it is said, is 
the nation which has no history” — but ‘^nation” in 
that phrase should be spelled ‘'crowd.” It is the 
Marathons and Trafalgars which knit and nationalize. 
At all events, Britain, now, with her largely decreased 
population, was certainly knit and nationalized. She 
could proceed from thought to action almost with the 
spontaneity of a single brain and arm. In her hand 
was the sword — but upon her brow sat Deliberation, 
and the grave air of the Statesman. 

This was all the more, and not the less, reason why 
Hardy’s announcements were followed by the wildest 
dismay, the most unalloyed panic. For Britain, and 
every Briton, felt that it was England, in the end, who 
would have to dam the yellow wave, or sink beneath it ; 
that it was she, and she alone, who must needs take up 
the cross of the world, and, like the Christ of the 
nations, with many an agony and bloody sweat, redeem 
mankind. 

Whatever else was true or false in Hardy’s letter, 
this, it was clear, was true : that, in the event of the 
yellow wave. Continental Europe was powerless. 

When there would be no eye to pity, and no arm to 
save, it must, then, be the arm of England which 
should bring salvation. And %uas it able . . . f 

There was the fleet of Japan, the fleet of China. 
And if even there were not the fleet of Japan, neither 
was there any longer a British fleet at all capable of 
opposing the landing, even in open boats, of an endless 
succession of innumerable armies on various parts of 
the coast. 


284 The Yellow Danger 

These reflections at once occurred to every one. And 
they had the same effect upon the mind, as if it had 
been scientifically announced that some fatal change 
was about to occur in the composition of the atmosphere 
of the earth. 

It was felt, of course, that the yellow conquest could 
not be an ordinary conquest, if it happened at all. 
There was no question of conqueror and conquered living 
together afterwards, and fraternizing, like Norman and 
Saxon. The yellow conquest meant, naturally, that 
wherever it passed, the very memory of the white races 
it encountered would disappear forever. 

At this dark thought the heart quailed ; and there 
was Panic. 

And at five o’clock of the day of the Times* two- 
columns, the Pall Mall Gazette came out with the 
following : 

(From our own correspondent.') 

By Anglo-American Cable Co. 

New York. — The Aew Yorlc Evening publishes 

to-day the report that a body of Thibetans (?) has 
seized the Eussian railway between Kokand and Kras- 
novodsk, together with the partially-dismantled for- 
tress at Samarkand, and have finally appeared at the 
east bank of* the Caspian. Their number, probably 
amounting to ten or fifteen thousand, has not been 
definitely ascertained. The rumor originates, I un- 
derstand, from an Evening Post correspondent at 
Astrakhan, and comes via Odessa and Paris. 

This item of news, meager as it was, was enough for 
Britain. At once every one jumped at the right con- 
clusion. Here, it was agreed, were the signs of his 
coming ” — the first ! 

As when a sudden comet lowers near the earth, ter- 
rifying the heart of kings, prophesying Change to the 
nations, and shaking pestilence from her ‘Hi orrid lair” 
— so, with its growing certainty, did the British nation 
cower at the drear future. Some one rediscovered the 


The Yellow Danger 285 

telegram about the 500 Chinese at St. Petersburg, 
and noised it abroad afresh. The bleak and dismal sky 
lowered darkling. 

At twilight the Prime Minister was sitting by John 
Hardy’s bedside, which two physicians had just left. 


CHAPTER XXVII 

THE THREE GOSPELS 


About the time when the three important personages 
met at the inn, in the wood near LiJge, Dr. Yen How 
was deep in study from morning to night. On the 
table before him, all round his feet, overflowing every 
article of furniture in the apartment, were maps, 
general maps, local maps, special maps, survey maps. 
He had a goodly wide brain, and every village in 
Europe, its position, its name, its population, and 
every stream, and fort, and railway, and town, was 
climbing into that brain, one after the other, with the 
intention of staying there. And when he was finished 
he knew how God had made Europe, and how man had 
made it, and what was in it. 

He knew also Asia. 

While he was still pondering his maps, China was 
already far on its march. The seizure of the railway- 
line by Thibetans ^^ (?), reported in the Pall Mall 
Gazette, had taken place four weeks before the news 
reached New York. The British army of India, after- 
wards annihilated in Russia, had passed that way, and 
left an easy task for the yellow pioneers. 

Even before this China had begun to flow westward. 
Yen How had found her a frozen stream ; and like a 
frozen stream when the sun shines strongly, she had 
moved at last under her steady heat, slowly, in trick- 
ling rivulets, long before the crash of the dripping ice 
and the billowing broad rush of the torrent. 

Having waked China by the methods we have de- 
scribed, how did he effect this irresistible Western ten- 
dency, so mighty in its impulse at last, that an arm a 
286 


The Three Gospels 287 

million times stronger than Yen How’s could not have 
checked it, had he willed ? 

He did it by preaching, Avith the inspiration of Con- 
fucius, only with a far greater success than Confucius, 
his three Gospels of Greed, of Eace, and of Cruelty. 

And in doing so, he remembered the density of the 
skull which he had to inspire with ideas ; he was not 
preaching even to Kussian moujiks, but to men 
still sloAver of understanding. To ploAV a fact into their 
brains he knew that he must plow hard. But he was 
quite equal to this. With liis usual thoroughness he 
said : A hundred ways : and of these one will not fail.” 

At all events he had chosen the doctrines which the 
Chinese were most apt to learn, and had, in fact, 
already been taught by nature. And herein lay his 
chief wisdom. 

Just Avhen the pressure of the new taxation crushed / 
heaviest upon the penurious poor of China, he collected ' 
an army of 400,000, composed of men taken from each 
of the regiments into which all the land of the ^Mon- 
gols was now divided; and this force he hurled into 
two divisions across tlie Si-Kiang against Annam, the 
ancient antagonist of China, and Burma. The horrors 
perpetrated in these atrocious and totally unexpected 
raids could not be described ; a great massacre re- 
sulted, and the army amassed hoards of spoil, gathered 
from many a Buddist vihdra and jeweled palace-gate. / 
And immediately on its return, the individuals Avho 
composed it Avere redrafted, laden Avith booty, to their 
former districts, to spread through every village in ./ 
China fairy-tales of gore and gold in foreign lands. ^ 

There was not, moreover, a drill-sergeant of the re- 
motest squad of conscripts who did not become a mis- 
sionary of Yen Hoav, preaching for him the three glad 
tidings of hell. 

Many Chinese did not know that there was any 
other land than China, nor had, till the Massacre, seen 
a white man, nor knoAvn that there Avere such things as 
white men. 

How they heard ; and the astonished ear Avas 
charmed. 


288 


The Yellow Danger 

Could it be that beyond that land of pinched scarcity 
which they knew, there was Another, in which feeble, 
pretty creatures, resembling real men, lived in rose- 
beds, and threw to one another balls of gold, and 
made love on couches of eider-down and ivory ? And 
if not, what was this rumor, these tidings of good, 
coming strangely from afar, this new talk ? And this 
new holiday of blood, and this new drilling, after four 
thousand years ? And this new Movement, and this 
new stirring of sap in the old, dead tree-trunk after the 
long long changeless winter ? Surely the seasons 
return ! and hy wondrous miracle leaves are again on 
the branches, and all is new ! There is, then. Spring 
and Joy in the world ? and not utter, ugly woe — four 
thousand years of age ? Gold ? — and frail, white 
limbs to be torn apart ? — and the blood of luxurious 
kings to be quaffed by thirsty Chinamen in carved 
goblets of alabaster ? — and cushions of embroidered 
silk hanging in plenty for all among the lazy, rotting 
melons on the far-off trees ? 

Far into the dreamiest wilds of savage China, Mon- 
golia, Thibet, came this message of blessedness, this 
New Eeligion of lust. And every citizen became a con- 
vert, and every convert a zealot, and every zealot an 
apostle. 

And the more intolerable Yen How made China for 
them with burden, and drill, and tax, the louder and 
deeper swelled their cry to be led forthwith into this 
promised land of plenty afar. 

In the Commentaries of Caesar we read of whole com- 
munities packing, as it were, their trunks, leaving their 
own land, and migrating in a body to some new territory. 
It was this strange, wandering tendency which now 
possessed the Mongolian race ; but instead of a tribe or 
community on the march, the stars were to look down 
and behold a nomad Empire. 

This weird and, indeed, awful spectacle destiny had 
held concealed in her womb ; for this, too, was to be 
one of the acts in the drama of Man ; and in the ful- 
ness of time it was evolved, and seen. 

But no one knew better than Dr. Yen How that thQ 


The Three Gospels 289 

Mongolian race in its passage across the old world 
would meet with obstacle and pain — the weariness of 
the march, the day’s hunger, the fight in the street, 
the rain of shot and shell at Metz, and Konigsberg, 
and Paris, and Dover ; as for the Japanese section of 
the race, he knew that Greed and Cruelty alone were 
incentives sufficient to provide a steady impulse to 
their native firmness and valor ; but as for tiie Con- 
tinental section of it, he decided to hurl them forward 
by an added impulse — the excitation of the instinct of 
Race. 

In China this instinct took always a religious form. 
And hence Yen How had skilfully contrived to invest 
his Massacre with something of the solemnity of a 
Rite. In the cities round the coast, where the white 
man had long been known and abominated, the mas- 
sacre gave an impetus to racial animus, which perhaps 
was capable of no further fury ; but, in addition, he 
planned for China on the whole a religious mania in 
connection with this very race-instinct, which he 
counted upon to inspire it in the direction he willed 
with the frenzy of the Crusader. 

The religion of China consisted in the worship of 
the dead ; and this worship took the form also of the 
worship of the living, whenever the living happened to 
be a reincarnation of the dead. On the belief in rein- 
carnation, Buddhism and Confucianism were at one. 

The living were reincarnations of the dead when 
they were either proclaimed to be so by the priests, or 
when they were proclaimed to be so by the Emperor, 
or — when they could work miracles. 

How Yen How could work the most astounding 
miracles ; and he was proclaimed by the Emperor, and 
he was proclaimed all over China by the priests, to be 
the reincarnation of a dead man. And the dead man 
of whom he was proclaimed to be the reincarnation was 
— Confucius. 

To begin with, he was made a Saint. 

Then (at about the time when John Hardy joined the 
Englishmen at Kiao-chau) began a remarkable trium- 
phant passage through China of this great man and his 

^9 


290 


The Yellow Danger 

enormous Court of dignitaries. In a grand religious fes- 
tival lasting by Imperial Decree through a month, Yen 
How was presented and hailed in temple and at praying- 
mill, from Pekin to Lhassa, as the Heaven-descended 
Leader of the Only Eace, come back, according to old 
promise, to lead them to the conquest and fruition of 
the world. His progress was attended with more than 
Imperial pomp ; he was raised high on a throne of 
royal splendor, and exhibited to the muttering and 
kneeling people : the dazzled eye admitted him a god. 

If in some mountain-dell of remotest China there 
dwelt some benighted peasant who had never yet heard 
the name of Yen How, the ruler, the driller, the op- 
pressor, there was certainly not one now who did not 
know of Yen How, the Reincarnate, the bringer of 
glad tidings, the Head of his People. 

Confucius was China ; and Yen How was Confucius. 
He stood for the Race. 

Thus did he center in his own Person the whole 
race-instinct and race-religion of the land. He as- 
sociated the new creed of lust with the old of super- 
stition ; and of both he was the embodiment and 
Prophet. 

He knew that principles must center in a Person 
before they can lead nations by the nose, and fire them 
to heroism and martyrdom. Ho stirring Mahomedan- 
ism without Mahomet, and no strong Christianity with- 
out Christ. But in thus making himself the sole guide 
and motive-power to the whole people, the one center 
of adoration and trust, he went a step too far ; he com- 
mitted an error in tactics ; he did not take into 
account every contingency. 

For if the shepherd chance to perish what will become 
of the sheep ? 


CHAPTEE XXVIII 


THE YELLOW TERROR 

This was the very question which John Hardy, with 
his sure eye for the main fact among ten thousand, 
asked himself — 

“ If the shepherd chance to perish . . . ? 

At all events, it was the shepherd with which he, 
personally, had to do. Between him and Yen How was 
the tug of war ; and he knew it. 

So, a week after the battle in the Channel as he lay 
among his pillows, almost as white as they, he called 
old Bobbie to him, and said : 

Bobbie, do you know anything about British regi- 
ments and the dress they wear ? 

Not much, I’m afraid. Master John,” answered 
Bobbie. 

Well, then, you will find out, please, and as soon 
as possible — to-day. I want to know what regiment 

it is whose privates wear ” and he frowned in an 

effort of recollection — wear a scarlet uniform with 
white facings, and have somewhere about them a 
Prince of Wales’ plume and a coronet. Yes, that is it. 
Please find out ; and whether they are still in exist- 
ence, and all about them.” 

The old servant bowed and went away. In his eyes 
now was a perpetual wonder and reproach. The color 
and taste of the world were changed to him ; some one 
had meddled with his heart’s delight ; Hardy had come 
back, but the dazed old fellow could not find him. 

Hardy was now recovering from an attack of asthma 
which had brought him near to death. When he 

291 


292 The Yellow Danger 

opened his eyes to renewed care and thought, he had 
lost a week. The Chinese were in Europe. 

He put out his thin hand and languidly lifted a 
Times, and he saw the words ‘'The Yellow Terror/^ 
and his hand fell helplessly ; and presently he lifted 
the paper again, and he glanced at another place, and 
saw the words — “It is this scream of the Chinese which 
seems to inspire their victims with some indefinable 
new species of terror, never before . . . ” ; and his 
hand fell again. 

But already, by the next morning, he could sit up 
in bed to drink his cordial, and then he began to 
study the week’s events. His vitality was in reality 
intense and tough, and the thread by which he clung 
to life a strong one. He set to work to gather facts, 
and he could work stoutly. 

While the pile of papers was about him, old Bobbie 
hobbled into the chamber. 

“ This, I think. Master John, is the name of the 
regiment you want,” said the old man, handing a slip 
of paper. 

On the paper was written — 

“ The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex 
Kegiment). Eegimental Dist. : Yo. 57 — Hounslow.” 

“Well, Bobbie, and what about them?” asked 
Hardy. 

“The depot of the regiment is Hounslow, Master 
John ; and their late history is this : the first line bat- 
talion was in India at the beginning of the year, and 
the second line battalion was drafted from South 
Africa to join them a month after the commencement 
of the war. Both of these, as far as is known, have 
been destroyed in Russia. The 3d and 4th (militia) 
battalions have been fighting in North Germany, and 
seem to be no longer in existence, except for some few 
now in hospital at Chelsea, sir.” 

“And have you found out the names of those ?” 

“ No, Master John.” 

“Then do so at once.” 

He went on reading. The details had about them 
a certain indefiniteness, and they were not voluminous j 


The Yellow Terror 


m 

but he was quickly able to determine that the Chinese 
avalanche was pouring in four main streams. 

The 500 Chinese who had come to St. Peters- 
burg seeming poor,” and were to be/^sent back to 
their own country,” were not Chinese at all, but 
Japanese ; and before they could be sent back ” they 
had mysteriously scattered, and disappeared in the 
general mass of Europeans. They were intended to 
report to Yen How when the moment had come for 
him, personally, to move forward toward Europe. 

The Jehu of that wild four-horse chariot still sat far 
back in his seat, the reins taut in his hands. The four- 
fold van of his army was upon Europe, while its rear 
was still upon Pekin. It stretched across the world. 

Between those two mighty masses of mountains 
which, like the ramparts of the New Jerusalem, have 
locked in the Celestial Empire from contact, or 
knowledge, or suspicion, of the vague world beyond, 
they came. The Dead-sea lake, after old ages, was 
amove, aflow. Through that mysterious land, which 
the race-venom of the Mongol race has made a third 
unknown Pole in the midst of the earth, crawled the 
Aveird procession, the unbounded caravan. The wild 
elephant and the mild-eyed zebu saw them with wonder, 
and the summer monsoon went gadding with the 
marvelous tidings toward the plain, and over the sea 
to Africa, gossiping that there above, on the high flat 
land, Avas a New Thing moving under the sun. The 
sources of the Me-Kong, the Saluen, and the Irrawady, 
Avhich only the eye of the couchant tigress and of the 
yelloAV man had seen, beheld their week-long passage, 
and heard the creak of the cart, and the cry of the 
camel, and the muling of a child at the breast. 

They heard also the sudden scream Avith which the 
Chinese laughed. 

Never Avas so sloven and pell-mell an army ; never 
so straggling, and lumbering, and clumsy an array ; 
but never a poAver more eager, and more certain, to 
reach its goal. 

The Friant Division of the French Army, going 
from Presburg to Austerlitz, once marched forty-fiA’e 


294 The Yellow Danger 

miles a day for two consecutive days. But never a day 
which did not see this far-spread host sixteen leagues 
farther toward its aim. They could not be called in- 
fantry, though millions, during great part of the way, 
went on foot ; for the armored carts which Yen How 
had provisioned, the presence of which spread out the 
host from continent to continent, were the chief means 
of locomotion, and continually changed their occu- 
pants. There was, moreover, no care for life ; if a 
man was ill, if he dropped out of the march like a bird 
from the flight, he was left to perish, or to return. 

The length of all the units of a single army-corps in 
column of route was so unlike anything with which we 
are familiar, that the flgures are incapable of convey- 
ing any idea of its vastness. If the corps could have 
marched on a single road its length would have been 
1200 miles, that is to say, the length of three Englands ; 
and the entire corps would have taken thirteen days to 
pass a given point. 

This inconceivable worm of humanity contained 
among its two millions of individuals women incapable 
of walking a thousand yards, children born since the 
march began, old men, boys and girls of ten. 

Each of these pilgrimaging masses of men was in itself 
a nation, such as those of which Caesar writes, only 
probably far vaster. Its members came, nearly all 
from the same province, spoke the same dialect, had 
been impelled forward by the same set of influences, 
had been drilled by the same captains. Only its otficers 
were, in the main, Japanese ; and into the rank and 
file of each corps had also been drafted thirty thousand 
Japanese, all men. 

At the time when the five hundred scattered at St. 
Petersburg, and Yen How, immediately afterwards, 
received from them through Vladivostok and Nagasaki 
the news that all Europe was ready to receive him — » 
there were already of these nomad nations a hundred 
and forty on the march. 

Some of these hosts (particularly those that 
passed by the depression of the Jungarie Mountains, 
along the course of the Irtish, where the central 


The Yellow Terror 


295 

plateau of Asia finds its Western gate) had need to 
traverse tracts of desert country, bare of flocks, bare 
even of forage for mule and camel. Even by these, 
however, no widespread difficulty as to food and forage 
was felt. Whole districts of China had been left 
bare, as though eaten up by human locusts, by the suc- 
cessive corps which, as it were, bore the country away 
with them. 

Already, on the march, the soldiers of Yen How — 
men who have lived upon skeleton scarcity from birth, 
at the rate of some fraction of a penny per week — 
began to taste the luxury of life. Hot merely dried 
vegetables, rice, salt and tea, he saw squandered around 
him, but sausages, pressed meats, fresh meats. The 
administrative convoys and regimental trains, intended 
for the distribution of supplies to the troops covered 
many a mile ; the administrative convoys being in 
four echelons, two half -a-day’s march in the rear of the 
regimental trains, and the other two intended to bring 
up possible additional supplies from the rear. Aux- 
iliary convoys, also in four echelons, and containing 
many hundred of vehicles, took up deposits of rice, 
biscuits, and hay, made long before the commence- 
ment of operations at cantonments which extended to 
the farthest bounds of Chinese and Thibetan territory. 
They also carried supplies of preserved meats and 
forage, and followed the army-corps at a distance of 
two days’ march. 

Each individual of an army-corps, besides, was com- 
pelled to carry seven pounds of food in some utensil 
corresponding to a mess-tin or haversack ; this to form 
a reserve not to be touched, except when every other 
means of supply should fail. 

During the process of mobilization, each division of 
infantry, and each army-corps headquarters, had 
already vast collections of requisitioned herds of ani- 
mals, from dogs to camels, sufficient for four days’ 
meat, but intended by the help of other provisions to 
last for months. On the march, the cattle marched 
between the advanced column and the main body of 
the column. 


296 The Yellow Danger 

It was grand with what smoothness the immeasura- 
ble machine slid into motion as China began to flow in 
earnest ; there was no confusion ; western army-corps 
marched first, and then the next in order took up the 
minuet of nomadism, all converging and diverging in 
rhythmic involution and evolution, like the harmoni- 
ously intertwining currents of a stream. In the week, 
on the day, at the hour that Yen How designed, they 
moved, they passed away. 

Through all that breadtii of Thibet between the 
Himalayas and the Kuen-luns, on a level equal to the 
height of Mont Blanc, they came pouring and blunder- 
ing ponderously, fifty army-corps of them, some abreast, 
separated only by short intervals of twenty or thirty 
miles, a hundred millions of them, — and behind each 
man a pigtail wriggling in haste. 

Towards what do they press ? What vague blessed- 
ness ? They do not know. They do not ask. When 
the Pied Piper played his tune, all the rats of all the 
cities went gaily in haste after him, entranced, they, 
too, with wriggling tail, and whiskers cocked, and 
vaguest prospect. Yen How is the Piper of these 
prone, purblind, forward-shouldering multitudes of 
nations — he himself a dancer to another piping. 

Then, again, along the sources of the Irtish they 
poured, and, one night, all round the inhospitable 
steppe-like slopes which surround the lower level of Lake 
Balkash, there camped another fifty army-corps, some 
within sight of others, making by far the largest collec- 
tion of human beings covering a similar area which 
the stars had yet seen. And the next morning, and 
during all that day and the next, army-corps after 
army-corps, they moved, they passed away. 

The first (Thibetan) fifty are southern and western 
tribesmen, used to hard industry, short of stature, 
tlieir skin a clear yellow, almost of lemon. They are 
from farthest Taiwan, from Fo-kien to Yun-nan, and 
from Kwang-tung to Ho-nan ; and they pass between 
the sources of the Yang-tse-kiang and the Mekong, 
and between the Hwang-ho and the source of the Kia- 
ling, climbing to the flat roof of the world through 


The Yellow Terror 


297 

colossal forests bordering on everlasting snows, where 
glaciers and masses of angry water tear and pierce the 
mountains, forming natural routes through the im- 
passable. By the time they reach the high table-land 
of many rains and rushing rivers and abounding lakes, 
they find silent villages and deserted groves of the 
mulberry. The Thibetans have already passed away. 
And on through the stripped and empty land they go, 
shouldering and trundling — a hundred millions— and 
behind each man wriggles a pigtail in haste. 

Then, by the caravan-route which passes from Pekin 
through the Gobi desert north of the Southern Altais, 
pass the second (Balkash) fifty. They are Kobdoans, 
Xorthwesterii Mongolians (so-called), and tribesmen 
of the Chinese provinces north of the Hwang-ho (except 
those of Kan-su, Shen-si, and Pechili) ; men of a 
duskier yellow, as of weak-tea-and-milk, tall, and 
nomads already by instinct and habit, not averse to a 
further house-flitting — in plenty of company ! And 
these pass the sources of the Irtish to Balkash, and 
thence go swarming down into the lowlands and desert 
places round the Aral Sea, where Russia had so 
sweated and striven in vain. Across the Caspian they 
will follow at the right hour the pioneering (Thibetan) 
fifty. 

Then there are ten corps (the smallest of the four 
great branches), which, one by one, take the caravan- 
route passing from Pekin north of the bleak and bare 
Kuen-luns through all that rich agricultural region — 
an oasis in a land of barrenness — which is traversed by 
the Tarim river, beginning at Lob Kor, and ending 
beyond Kashgar. They are from the teeming provinces 
of Kan-su and Shen-si — twenty millions — behind each 
man wriggles a pigtail in haste. 

But the fourth main branch — Pechili, Korea, Kirin, 
Manchuria, Eastern Mongolia — tarry long behind ; for 
these are to travel swiftly, and in luxury — in Western- 
civilization rail way- trains ! Kot till the last moment 
before mobilization is the Russian garrison at Vladi- 
vostok shelled by Japanese ships, and Vladivostok 
itself seized from land by Chinese soldiers. Erom 


298 The Yellow Danger 

Vladivostok runs a railway to St. Petersburg ; and 
outside Vladivostok harbor, while the shelling of the 
forts is proceeding, waits a fleet of merchant-ships 
crowded with many thousands of large-grade railway- 
carriages, such as are required by the Russian lines, all 
manufactured at Nagasaki. And so to Vladivostok 
come the thirty Western corps, the sixty millions, the 
fourth great torrent of that disemboguing Nile. And 
as the crowded trains move out westward from the 
station, a shocking shrill scream of glee and terror 
from two thousand throats — the shrill glee and terror 
of a child in its first swing — fills all the air. It is 

the Chinese scream.” 

But how great a general is that little doctor ! This 
large matter of his, which would have bewildered, and 
abashed the genius of Caesar, is all clearly perceived 
and calculated in his intellect of ice. When he thinks 
of the world-magnitude of it all, he says ^‘Poh !” 
To God the world is a grain of dust ; to Yen Hov/ it is a 
geographical globe : he metes it with a compass ; in a mo- 
ment he walks about it. With what ease and thorough- 
ness has his first thought — that thought which could 
have occurred only to genius — been realized ! By a 
few scratches of his pen Europe has been prepared to 
receive him. There luill le no more Maxims there” 
he had said to the Marquis Ito with screwed-up eyes ; 
and there are no more Maxims there, or none worth 
mentioning. To lead one’s troops along the line of 
least resistance ” — that being the first maxim of the 
general, how great a general is this Yen in the first of 
all creating a line of no resistance at all ! 

But to guide that restive, rearing four-horse chariot 
«ven over the levelest plain, — how iron -strong must be 
the wrist of its Jehu, and how sublime his gallant 
callousness. 

This was his general plan : to connect himself 
telegraphically with his armies, and personally to 
direct their actions even in minute particulars. For 
the peculiarity of these monstrous hosts was this,:i^<- 
that by means of their unimaginable numbers they" 
could, almost without effort, carry out works in a day 


The Yellow Terror 


299 

which no other army could dream of ever accomplishing 
at all. Thus, the fifty Thibetan corps crossed the 
Caspian from Krasnovodsk to Baku, with its carts, 
transports, and stores, on huge towed rafts constructed 
within tiuo days from materials which they carried 
with them. So, also, wherever the first three great 
branches passed, they were followed by as many lines 
of telegraph as there were corps, just as the spider is 
followed by the thread it spins. And in the center of 
this web sat Yen How at Pekin. 

Such was the general plan. His particular plan was 
this : that the first line of Europe’s defense should be 
Germany ; for with exact foresight he calculated, 
some months before the battle in the Channel that, in 
almost any case, Germany would still have left some of 
her army-corps. Kussia he meant to take by surprise ; 
the Balkan Peninsula by surprise ; and both, he cal- 
culated, would be incapable of serious opposition. 

Into Eussia he would pour the sixty millions who 
went screaming along the Vladivostok railway ; into 
the Balkan Peninsula sixteen millions of the first 
(Thibetan) hundred millions. The remaining eighty- 
four millions of these were to be German, Swiss, and 
Austrian. The two other branches, numbering alto- 
gether a hundred and twenty millions, were to be di- 
vided into thirty French, twenty Italian, ten Norwe- 
gian and Swedish ; and because Holland and Belgium 
had not been directly ravaged by the war, and Spain 
only by the American war, he designed for Spain the 
large number of thirty millions, and for Holland, Bel- 
gium, and Denmark thirty millions. 

And at Pekin Yen How might very well have re- 
mained, and directed all this with absolute exactness 
and success, were it not that, at the back of the man's 
brain, there lay this singular thought : that none of 
the women of England must be' killed ! — till he gave 
the word. And he knew well that no earthly power 
save his own strong, present, personal grip, could re- 
strain his wild hordes, fresh from the gleeful slaughter 
of Europe, from washing their hands in the blood of 
every human female in Britain, 


300 


The Yellow Danger 

Therefore he took train at Vladivostok. 

The difference between him and Hardy was chiefly 
this : that with the race-iustipct and race-liatred and 
race-ambition of the Chinaman was mixed a personal, 
private motive, stronger even than the race-motive. 
Hardy, like the very greatest , concerned only for the 

world. 

It is written in the Book of the Law of the Lhiiverse 
Y that selfishness shall sooner or later be a source of weak- 
ness. Whoever denies this has not gone deep. 

The difference between Hardy and Yen How was 
the difference between Wellington and Xapoleon. Tlie 
latter, being more richly endowed, should have been the 
stronger — and was not. 

At the time when Yen How took train there was na 
longer any country corresponding to what was meant 
when one said ‘‘Eussia.” 

As soon as the first contingent of the first army-corps 
passed through the Urals north of Mount Iremel, its 
first care was to destroy all telegraphic communication 
between the locality and western centers. LTp to this 
moment not even a suspicion of what was coming had 
occurred to any one on the Continent, for it was not till 
the day after the first arrival of Chinese that the two 
British forces in France and Germany received home- 
ward orders. 

On the very day of their arrival, the final battle had 
been fought in France near Bar-sur-Seine with a 
French loss of eighteen thousand ; and on the same day 
the Emperor Wilhelm, rashly advancing with his staff 
and an insignificant reconnoitering party too near the 
British lines at Landsberg, was surprised by a troop of 
mounted vedettes, and taken prisoner. 

But when, on the next day. Lord Eoberts invited 
General Daubisson to/a conference, and Sir Evel3m 
AV ood invited the freely-liberated Kaiser, the announce- 
ments by the two British generals of their intention of 
immediate withdrawal, and of its cause, was received 
with mere amazed incredulity. The blow of the 
thunderbolt was stupefying. The Continental leaders 
did not fall to their knees and beseech the aid of their 


The Yellow Terror 


301 

British invaders ; there are tidings too large to find 
room in the brain. 

But even while the two conferences were proceed- 
ing, what was to become known as the “ Yellow Terror ” 
was already abroad — and fifty thousand Chinese had 
settled in fifteen or twenty Ural villages, whose streets 
were strewn with disemboweled dead. 

And almost as fast as the news could spread westward 
the Chinese spread westward also. 

It was the strangest army of occupation. As soon as 
an army-corps entered upon Eussian territory it scat- 
tered and vanished ; it split up into divisions, and one 
division went one way and one another ; and divisions 
split up into brigades, and one brigade went one way 
and one another ; and so the subdivision went on, 
every regiment, every company, having its town or 
village allotted to it by long-previous design. By the 
time the first contingents of the second corps had 
crossed the Volga at Syzran, there were probably not a 
thousand Kussians left alive anywhere between Perm 
and Astrakhan. 

There was no fighting. Those that could fly or hide, 
fled or hid. The rest heard the Chinese scream,” 
and died. For every one that died two screams went 
to Heaven — the scream of the victim and the scream 
of his slayer. 

Then spread the yellow terror ” — at first slowly, 
then with the wings of the lightning. 

In old Saxon times mothers frightened their crying 
babes with the swiftly-whispered words : The Danes 

are coming ! ” But the panic horror with which Europe 
in a few days learned to receive the simple announce- 
ment : ^ ‘ The Chinese are coming I ” had no resemblance, 
in its unutterable awesomeness, in its supernatural 
affright, to any previous terror experienced by men. 

The Black Death of the Middle Ages, which nearly 
altogether emptied Europe, inspired no doubt an equal 
tragic suggestion ; but it probably failed in something 
of that staring, pallid, dry-throatedy?«w^V characteristic 
of the Yellow Terror, chiefly on account of the element 
of the unknown and wholly novel in the Chinese 


302 The Yellow Danger 

cataclysm, — on account, also, of the certainty of his 
doom which pierced the heart of each European, — and 
on account, thirdly, of certain hints of unutterable 
horror which accompanied the rumors of the onward 
sweep of the yellow wave. 

The reign of hell which had followed upon some 
Japanese victories during the Chino-Japanese war was 
well known in Europe. If China had fared so at the 
hand of Japan, how would Europe fare at the hand of 
China led by Japan . . . ? 

Lamentation and a voice in Ramah, and a widening, 
running shriek, swelling into a cry of such volume and 
intensity as had never yet risen from earth to Heaven, 
marked the middle of the month of September in 
Europe. 

Then came to pass, even to the utmost, that vision 
in the Apocalypse Woe, woe to the inhabitants of the 
earth . . . 

Among the millions that rushed westward in plague- 
stricken panic and frenzied selfishness was the famous 
duellist Edrapol, who then happened to be at Cracow. 

He made straight for Paris ; and on arriving at the 
hotel in the Avenue Wagram where he always stayed, 
he found awaiting him this letter : — 

^^SiR, — As I promised you, I am writing to seek you 
out for the purpose of the little duel to which you 
challenged me, the European war being now at an end. 
I confess to you that this duel of yours and mine seems 
to me a very absurd thing ; but still, a bargain is a 
bargain. I am in a low state of health at present, and 
quite unable to come to you, even if I knew where you 
are to be found. But I write instead, so as to be able 
to say I did not altogether break my word, and am 
getting the letter to you at considerable personal 
trouble. I hope you will receive it, and send me, when 
you can, a reply. 

“ I am, sir, 

‘‘ Your servant, 

JoHJ^ Hardy,"' 


CHAPTER XXIX 


THE WEAK POIKT 

During the first part of that memorable Week of 
accountable, yet strange, Xight, when the darkened 
sun and the quaking crust of the earth seemed to the 
affrighted imagination of men surely to portend the 
coming of the great and dreadful day of the wrath of 
God, John Hardy’s agents were hot on the trail of the 
young woman whom he sought. 

Three weeks previously, the old butler had brought 
him a list of the men left in hospital of the Duke of 
Cambridge’s Own regiment, and as Hardy’s eye ran 
down the list, be saw a name which he had heard, 
which was on the tip of his memory, yet which he had 
been unable to remember. His eye lit up at the sight 
of it. It was the name of the soldier John Brabant. 

There was nothing miraculous in the fact that Bra- 
bant still lived ; yet to Hardy it seemed nothing less 
than a genuine miracle. Faith in the Divine formed 
the groundwork and rock-bed of his simple nature : 
and his eye continually searched for, and assumed, the 
stealthy, busy Finger. 

A day afterwards he was able to leave his bed, and at 
once he hurried, muffled up, in a close carriage, to the 
Chelsea Hospital, and the bedside of Brabant. 

Brabant, as it happened, was dying from exhaustion 
as the result of an amputation, and did, in fact, die a 
few days later. He was, however, able to give the 
address of the villa at which the girl Seward had been, 
or was still (for he was not sure), a servant. 

To Hardy, the one thing of paramount interest in 


3^4 The Yellow Danger 

’'the world seemed to be to have this girl, whose initials 
he bore branded on his breast, secure in his own keep- 
ing. He had the instinct to lock her away in some 
castle of absolute safety, and feed her every hour with 
his own hands, lest chance or change should befall her. 

That, at a time when the earth was travailing in 
deathbirth, all should depend, one way or the other, 
upon a London servant girl, was wondrously like the 
way of Life. Things happen so — not with vigor and 
rigor, as Mr. Matthew Arnold very well says, but in 
^ that fast-and-loose fashion. When fate is not freakish, 
she is unlike herself. The unprecedented is the 
natural, and may be counted upon. Destiny is full of 
\ novelties. 

That a nerve in this particular girl should set a 
nerve in Yen How a-tingling, and that Yen How’s 
tingling, spreading out beyond all limit into trans- 
cendental rapture, should infect a whole planet with 
tingling, — this was nothing more than the launching 
of a battleship by the pressure of an electric button, or 
the loosening of an avalanche by the rolling of a peb- 
ble. In such surprises both Fate and Nature abound. 

But Ada Seward was no longer at the Pattison Villa ; 
all the information which could be gathered there was 
the fact that she had a brother, a bicycle-smith, resid- 
ing in Church Eoad, Chelsea, to whom she may have 
gone after suddenly leaving the Pattisons. But the 
brother declared that she was not there ; and either 
he could not, or would not, give any further details 
about Ada to the agents employed by Hardy. 

It became clear that about the girl and her move- 
ments hung some sort of mystery ; that something was 
being concealed with regard to her. 

Hardy commenced to seek her throughout England, 
advertising in every paper, and setting to work the 
best detectives. 

If she were abroad ? If she were dead ? And if 
Yen How knew it — had secret means of knowing it ? 
In that case Hardy had no hope. 

He remained in a state of brooding, morbid pensive- 
ness. At night he sat long at table after dinner. 


The Weak Point 305 

drinking much too freely, his right hand on the mouth 
of the decanter, his left hanging heavy, his head sunk. 

In this way three weeks passed ; and still the girl 
remained hidden. 

Then came the memorable Week of Darkness. 

At this time the wild flood of migration from the 
Continent was in full sweep. England had risen nobly 
to Hardy’s summons to offer herself as the City of 
Kefugc to the ill-fated peoples of Europe, and had 
opened to them a large and pitying bosom, as a mother 
folds her terrifled child. 

The merchant marines of all the still unswamped 
nations, with the Avhole available merchant marine of 
Britain, were engaged in the continual task of deporta- 
tion. 

But like the pious pelican ” which feeds her young 
with the blood of her own torn breast, England fed the 
stranger with her life. 

The famine grew sore in the land, even though the 
self-governing colonies, at the flrst warning of the 
facts, set stoutly to work to meet the demands upon 
their feeding powers. 

In Britain itself, quite suddenly, there sprang into , , 
being the visible germs of a real Socialism. The ne- ^ 
cessities of the human race no longer admitted of / 
quibbling and compromise with the root facts of life, ^ 
and the root laws of God. It had been the custom 
before the war to say, in a phrase so generally accepted 
that it had passed into an axiom, that England could 
not feed herself.*^ The wild fancifulness of this asser- 
tion (which might bring a smile to the lips of even a 
child who seriously thinks of it) may be seen from the 
arithmetical fact that England (or any ordinary piece 
of land of similar size) can feed, not only herself, but 
almost the entire population of the globe — under right 
and natural conditions of life. For if a man, or a child, 
unhampered by artiflcial customs, will set to work 
with a spade and a hoe upon the ground, it is a fact 
that a very small piece of fertile land — something like 
a tenth of an acre — will supply him not only with food 
to keep him continually munching, but with so much 
20 


3o6 The Yellow Danger 

more than he can eat himself, that he shall have 
enough left over to give in exchange to some one else 
V . who has spent his time in making boots and clothes, 
and wishes to sell these in exchange for the surplus 
corn and carrots grown by the first man. IS’ow, on 
the broad bosom of Britain, which is not niggardly, but 
w rich in alimentary bounty, there are 790,000,000 of 
^ such pieces of land ; and 790,000,000 is much the 
larger portion of the population of the earth. 

England, therefore, if she be properly governed, can 
quite surely feed not only herself, but the rest of 
mankind as well. 

This had been the ^‘open secret’^ of social life, 
preached through many a century by the singled-eyed 
great ones — with their simple and discerning wit ! But 
it needed nothing less than the inexorable compulsion 
of Destiny to teach it clearly, once and for all, to the 
whole race. 

Meantime, in the absence of regulations, which in- 
volve time for their accomplishment, the rich men, and 
the not-poor men, of Britain came nobly forward with 
proffered purse to the perishing millions. 

American gold, too, streamed into England. Here 
came the news that the immigrants from Europe were 
being received with pitying effusions in that land of 
hospitality. The terms of the league proposed by 
Hardy were occupying the attention of the two Gov- 
ernments, and nearing completion. , ^ 

Meanwhile the only possible defensive measure 
against the Yellow Wave on the part of England was 
an intense activity at Chiswick, at Jarrow, at Chatham, 
at Birkenhead, at Sheerness, at Portsmouth, at Pais- 
ley, at Glasgow, atXewcastle, at Pembroke, at Sunder- 
land, in every Government, in every private dockyard. 
Thousands of men were requisitioned from remotely 
allied trades to aid in the agonized work of building, 
building, building. But Hardy, for one, smiled at 
the idea that Yen How was going to be simple enough 
to allow Britain time to build ships to beat him. 

He, for his part, had set going another activity, 
equally eager, and more to the point. 


The Weak Point 


307 

By direct suggestion to the First Lord of the 
Admiralty, he had singled out the men of the Royal 
Naval Artillery Volunteers as the nucleus of force 
which must now become the hope of Britain. 

Though there was hardly any longer a Royal Naval 
body of men, there still remained a considerable Royal 
Naval Reserve, when therefore Hardy designated the 
Artillery Volunteers, Mr. Goschen, who alone was in 
the secret of his plans, expressed surprise. 

Hardy, however, persisted ; and the next day, by 
proclamation, the members of the force were requisi- 
tioned for service. At the same time a large addi- 
tional number of volunteers sent in their names, to be 
the commanding officers of the stationary drill-ships. 

The members of this force, which had always, since 
its formation by special Act in 1873, formed one of 
the most exclusive clubs in the world, consisted only of 
professional and business men, — doctors, bank-clerks, 
solicitors, stockbrokers, authors, — who had regularly 
left the desk, or the consulting-room, or the office, to 
attend at least twice a month at gun, rifle, pistol, and 
cutlass drill, until they attained tlie standard of 
“ efficients,” — men who had cast off the orchided frock- 
coat, completely sinking their social position, to put 
on the blue working-dress of the simple blue-jacket on 
the yearly cruises in the gunboat, or the Saturday-to- 
Monday cruise in the seamanship-practise schooner. 
These men, belonging exclusively to the great middle 
class, represented the very essence of the mood of 
England. And it was with them that Hardy proposed 
to set up the first dam to the Yellow AYave. 

He wanted 4000 of them ; and he got them. 

The various drill-ships of the local brigades were 
assembled at Portsmouth with tenders, and the work 
of drilling and instruction went forward with unremit- 
ting zeal, the 4000 and odd gentlemen who composed 
this strange force subjecting themselves to the most 
grinding discipline, sleeping in hammocks, swabbing 
decks, cooking food, and cleaning guns ; opening, 
above all, their already trained minds to the art of 
fighting on moving water. 


3o8 The Yellow Danger 

But when they asked one another ivliy they were doing 
all this, there was no forthcoming answer. They cer- 
tainly were the men, but where were the ships ? 

Hardy, in his jealousy lest his shii)s might be used 
for purposes at all other than those for which he 
designed them had kept his secret well. They were to 
him like buried gold to the miser. He gloated over 
the thought of them, over the loud bad language he 
would make them talk, when that great hour came. 

Meantime, he sat brooding often, sometimes des- 
perately ill, sometimes with his hand resting for hours 
on the mouth of the decanter, his sunken head crowded 
with the busy fumes of wine. 

And as he sat so one night — it was the Tuesday of 
the Week of Darkness — something spurred within him, 
and he sprang to his feet, and took his cap, and went 
out into the stifling dark air. 

His once gentle heart, though embittered and des- 
perate, was not wholly dead. Under this sudden 
impulse, wine-inspired, he jumped into a cab and drove 
to Hampstead. 

He stopped at the door of Miss Jay. He had now^"' 
been several weeks in England, yet had not seen her. 
Why he now went he did not ask himself : some vague 
motive worked in him to insult, or press, or smite her 
in the face, — such was the tragic desperation of his 
empty and callous heart. Love, tenderness, were far 
from him now ; yet in the depths of his nature some 
ungovernable cry in the dark, some fierce yearning 
perhaps, spurred him toward the sister of his soul : 
such subterranean throes occur in the dim places of 
the hearts of men. 

Her carriage drove up to the door as he entered it, 
and he found her in evening dress in the drawing-room, 
cutting the leaves of a book. War, and eclipse, and 
the overthrow of the world, seemed to leave untouched 
the reposeful tenor of this very modern young lady’s life. 

Here was the morgue hritanniqiie” in its very 
ultimate demonstration. 

You are well again, then, Mr. Hardy she said, 
giving her hand, I am so glad ! ” 


The Weak Point 


300 


Well or not, I um come to see you, you see/’ 

He threw his cap one way and himself another, and 
looked gloomily at her. 

She, for her part, was shocked — at his aged eyes, his 
wild aspect, the quite visible gray in his hair. How, 
at least, she recognized a grown man, and a master of 
men. 

For minutes of inward reflection there was silence 
between them. He said : 

I told yon I would come again, and come I am.” 

Her heart bounded. She answered : 

‘‘ Yes.” 

Have you got over all that about Art ? ” This he 
asked with a momentary gentle smile. 

Ho — not got over it ” — the irony in her leaping up, 
and smothering the pity: ‘‘not yet. A weakness of 
that sort clings so to one. In the absence of a sun, one 
works by lamp-light — which is all that remains. ” 

“ Well, I see you are still a mocker. But one cannot 
always go on mocking.” 

“ Ho, no. I do not mean, really, to mock at anything. 
In reality, I am very sorry, and sad, at everything. ” 

“ Is that so ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Well, I believe that, too. At bottom you are good 
and kind.” 

“ I hope so.” 

“ That was why I came to see you, now. God only 
knows why I came. You ought to have married me 
wdien I told you. ” 

“Oh, as to that ” she said. 

“Ho, no, do not begin that again!” he retorted 
fretfully. Can’t you guess that I am changed in 
mood, and everything ? All that is not for me any 
more.” 

Somehow her heart sank ; and the sadness of au- 
tumnal winds sighing amon^ dead leaves smote its 
chords. So wild a pity is in the world, and so bitter a 
sob. 

She said : 

“ I can see that you are changed, yes ; and I divine 


310 The Yellow Danger 

that you are far from happy. What has been the 
matter ? ” 

“ AVhy should I tell you ? ’’ 

There is no reason in the world, Mr. Hardy.” 

‘‘You see, that is the way you talk to me !” he said, 
regarding her fixedly under his eyes : “ soon, when I 
am gone, you will be saying to yourself, ‘Well, it was 
bitter of me not to love and comfort poor J ohn Hardy 
in his misery.’ ” 

“ Gone ? ” she questioned, — “ gone where to ? ” 

“Gone to God” — and in a lower tone — “gone to 
Hell.” 

And now she rose, and in haste went to sit beside 
him. And the pity of ministering angels was in her 
voice. 

“ Tell me,” she said, “ for you have come to me 
feeling that I am your good friend, and you should 
tell me.” 

“ Ah, it is nothing,” he said, and he flung himself 
backward on the sofa where he sat. 

“ It must be very much since it has affected you so. 
I heard something . . . but did not quite realize it. 
You should — you should have come before.” 

“ Come for what ? I tell you it is no good at all any 
more ! ” 

“ But you are too — too despondent. See — you say 
you want my love and comfort — there is my hand 
in yours, my friend. If you do not tell me your 
trouble, that will mean to me that you do not — really 
— care for me.” 

“ Ah, I did, though ! I did ! ” 

“ And do — or you would not come. Can’t you see 
that ? You do still. So you must open your heart to 
your friend.” 

He looked into her eyes, and they swam in tears. 
His head lying back on the sofa-back rolled from side 
to side. 

“You are a good, kind girl,” he said, “ and I knew 
that long ago. I had a kind of power to guess every- 
thing that was in you. Why did you not — but it is 
useless talking now. Let me go away.” 


The Weak Point 


3II 


No, no — do not say that.’’ 

“ Well, now, I call you wondrously good.” 

Of course I am — of course. Can’t you divine I — 
naturally — do not wisli you to go. You look so sad — 
so worn with suffering. Why is that ? How is it ? 
Ah ! I am so — I could not tell you. But you — tell me^ 
for I beg you, all your trouble.” 

Well, well . . . But to what end ?” 

Because I ask you ; and because I feel that it will 
do you good to tell me.” 

She ought to have said, ‘^Because it will redeem 
you, and save you to tell me ” ; for that was the truth. 

And indeed, an impulse did then rise in John Hardy 
to tell to her at least that history which he was hoard- 
ing and hugging venomously in his breast, which he 
had breathed to no living soul, save in one short sen- 
tence, to old Bobbie Mason ; the history of those long 
tortures — how the scream of a cat had been rent from 
his twisting and beastialized soul — how he had cursed 
the deaf ears of God — how, now, his poor nerves, tin- 
gling in a chaos of jangling dissonance, like the wires 
of some shattered instrument of music, represented all 
the universe to him as a mere black nightmare crowded 
with sighing winds and unutterable, dismal shapes of 
woe — how, above all, his passion for vengeance had 
settled within him into the cruel and wicked malice of 
a fiend. 

He had the impulse to tell it all out, and save his 
soul ; and he said : 

‘^Well — I will tell you— if your ears can bear it. 
You know, do you not, that I went to China — but no, 
no, no ! I am not a child. Miss Jay ! do let me get 
away ! ” 

And suddenly he had snatched his hand, had sprung 
up, and was gone almost before the cry had leapt her 
lips. 

And she, for a long time, sat staring vacantly at the 
floor, and did not go out that evening. 

During that (Tuesday) night, the Japanese fleet, just 
arrived in Europe, appeared in twos and threes along 
the southeast coast. On Wednesday morning, England 


312 The Yellow Danger 

heard the news that Hastings, Brighton, Worthing, 
and so on to Boguor, had been reduced to heaps of 
broken stone, some seven hundred people having been 
killed. Hone of the muzzle-loading district coast- 
defense ironclads had been left afloat. 

That was on the Tuesday. On the Wednesday even- 
ing Hardy received a small wooden box, bearing the 
direction: “John Hardy, England.” It bore no 
stamps, and had evidently been brought from its origin 
“by hand.” 

On opening it, he found a quantity of paper stuffing ; 
and, this being removed, a dry and shriveled, but still 
evil-smelling, object, upon which had been stuck a small 
oblong piece of paper. On the paper were three lines 
of tiny, neat writing; and the words written were 

“ From Yen How to John Hardy.” 

“ Heart of His Royal Highness Prince Heinrich of 
Hesse.” 

Prince Heinrich of Hesse, as Hardy knew, was a 
young child of eight. 

Even while Hardy sat contemplating this object, a 
private detective was ushered into his presence. He 
came to say that, at last, by means of a confession of 
her brother, he had been able to trace the whereabouts 
of the girl Seward, 


CHAPTER XXX 


THE CHINESE SCREAH 

The Erench invasion was twofold, one-qnarter of the 
Italian Chinese crossing into the Gulf of Lyons to Cette 
by towed floats, and so along the canal from Cette, 
across the narrow part of France, to where the canal 
meets the Garonne near La Reole, and thence to the 
Gironde and the Biscay coast. This horde, with half 
the French horde proper, making altogether twenty 
millions, were to be British. 

So it happened that, while the French horde proper 
were pouring through Belgium by Verviers, Liege, 
Namur, and Charleroi, pressing towards the practically 
unfortifled northern frontier of France between Mau- 
beuge and Rocroy, at Hirson, five million Italian 
Chinese had already decimated the western sea-board, 
and had been organized into stores-collecting, and 
barge, raft, lighter, and tug-collecting and constructing 
brigades. 

All behind these two invading hordes, what resistance 
there had been was over, with the exception of some 
half-dozen detached strongholds, whose garrisons were 
gradually yielding to famine ; and everywhere to the 
east and north of France, again with some exceptions, 
was the unsparing pigtail. These exceptions were 
Hungary, Turkey, Lapland, Finland. For in Europe 
the Mongolian invaders found some twenty-seven mil- 
lions of Mongolian inhabitants already there, and it 
was one of the purposes of that great inventor and con- 
summate statesman. Yen How, that these should be 
left alive to form (the Hungarians especially) the 
nucleus of U now oivilization^ which was to be neither 


314 


The Yellow Danger 

like the old Western, nor like the old Eastern, and like 
nothing in the world save something which he, Yen, 
had quite definitely mapped out in his own wide space 
of brain. 

The western sweep of the Yellow Wave had, in fact, 
been slightly swelled by some hundreds of thousands 
of European Turks and Magyars. 

Near Charleroi was made what was practically the 
last battle-field stand of Continental Europe. The 
Elysee, with rash pride, had issued a manifesto to the 
people of France, inviting all who could not fiy to give 
in their names as fighters at bureaux established in 
various quarters of various cities. To this call 200,000 
French youths and old men responded, an untrained 
army, of which the last residues of the Eeserve of the 
Territorial Army formed the nucleus, set forth to hurl 
themselves upon the infinite. 

It was computed that each fighting European de- 
stroyed, one way and another, thirty yellow men. But 
could the arm of each, dead-weary of slaughter, have 
destroyed three hundred, or three thousand, still the 
effort would have been wasted. Over the carcases of a 
thousand dead straggled a million living. To shoot 
the vagabond Atlantic with cannon is a mockery of 
one^s self. 

The garrison of Paris remained ; but the occupation 
of the French capital, supposed to be impossible to any 
other army, was, though bloody in its accomplishment, 
not extremely difficult to this. 

A corps and a half, making nearly twice the number 
which, in its palmiest days, had inhabited the city of 
light and joy, sat down along the northern valley of 
the Seine, their lines occupying a length from the 
Ach^res-Poissy railway-line to the Foret de Bondy, 
well beyond that outer ceinture of fortifications com- 
posed of great strongholds such as Oormeilles, Francon- 
ville. Cotillons, Montmorency, Domon. 

The first care of the besiegers was to isolate the city ; 
and in every direction, during one night, all the lines 
of railway radiating from the center were blown up 
^long a distance of §ome score of yards, 


The Chinese Scream 315 

Then at once, with light siege train, a brigade was 
thrown forward, and an attack begun upon St. Ger- 
main-en-Laye. 

Precisely what was the thought of the French gen- 
eral, what his ultimate hope, in making his determined 
resistance is not known. But a determined resistance 
he did make. Such had always been the splendid 
desperation, the tragic pride, of France. 

The Chinese, on their part, might very well have 
drawn lines round the entire outer ceinture, and waited 
there till all the cats and dogs of Paris and its villages 
had been eaten ; but this no longer suited their mood. 
The yellow man in his senses, is, indeed, afraid of 
cannon. But the entire race was by this time no 
longer in its senses ; here was a people dancing mad, 
gorged with gore, flushed with victory, greedy of 
agonies. Fear they no longer knew. To celebrate for- 
ever a jubilee of devils in a scarlet world — to raise ever 
higher monuments built of human corpses, and shriek 
and dance around them — to live, to roll, to die in red 
— this was their sole remaining instinct. 

General Saussier, sitting at St. Cloud with his staff, 
received telephonic message from St. Germain : 

Chinese are being mown down by thousands, but 
still they come.” 

And half an hour later by telegraphic click-clack 
from the mighty seven-battery Fort de Marly : 

‘‘ Strong assault by Chinese. No. 2 redoubt carried 
by gangways and scaling-ladders in teeth of guns. Loss 
of enemy immeasurable.” 

And an hour later from St. Cyr : 

Chinese now swarming over glacis. Battery in 
rear carried. Ammunition cannot, I fear ” 

No more. So southward and eastward spread the 
tale of huge carnage, of steady, rapid advance. By 
nightfall of the first day of siege, St. Germain, Marly, 
St. Cyr, Versailles, Chatillon, had fallen. 

It was on the next morning, at the hour when the 
sun should have been seen to rise, that men were first 
startled by a continuance of the darkness of the night, 

The secret of this phenomenon was, of course, un- 


3i 6 The Yellow Danger 

known at the time. In England, presently, it was 
given out by the scientists that some monstrous thing 
had happened, probably in some region of the South 
Sea — some unparalleled passion of ^^ature — which had 
poured over the earth in inconceivable mass its scoriae 
and tufaceous particles and multiform volcanic ashes, 
darkening the day. That some new properties were 
present in the atmosphere could not be doubted ; for 
at the same time an intolerable oppression settled upon 
the chest, and, perhaps by reflex action, down sank the 
spirits of men ; the minds of the children assumed the 
garb of crape and sackcloth which the Mother had put 
on ; and an awe, and a charnel horror, and a fear, 
such as the heart had never yet known, gripped it now. 

In England, it may be presumed, this unutterable 
pall of gloom lay much less heavily upon the imagina- 
tion ; for here the Chinese and their reign of terror 
were a mere inconceivable nightmare, not a present 
fact. But in England, too, the universal nerve felt 
the strangeness and the thrill of that ghastly obscurity. 

It was ghastly because it was not complete. Utter 
gloom would have been more tolerable. Towards noon, 
during all the week, the sun Avas not Avholly hidden, 
but appeared as a garish blotch of leprous lavender, 
giving nothing that could be called light, making only 
the darkness visible ; Avhile, as if to vie in chromatic 
hideousness, the moon appeared one night for an hour 
as a black eye-socket, Avith a rim of pallid green ; and 
then disappeared. 

The sickly gloom of the daytime was just sufficiently 
relieved to enable near objects to be discerned by the 
troubled eyes, while distances Avere lost in unrelieved 
blackness. 

The event at Timor, by which the entire island AA^as 
destroyed, was of so extraordinary a character that 
positively the whole planet, Avith the exception of some 
parts of America, may be said to have been infected 
by the catastrophe. Nagasaki disappeared, with many 
of the inland toAvns of Japan ; a tidal wave inundated 
a large tract of the Kimberley district of Australia ; 
Vesuvius plumed her cones with a rufous fume of 


The Chinese Scream 317 

lurider red ; and old ^tna, purring and stuttering her 
thunders, broke into strange and gruff garrulity. Over 
Europe, from the Mull of Oe to the Urals, there was 
an almost continuous, just perceptible quaking of the 
ground, which nowhere broke into violence, nowhere 
did damage, yet was remarkable for its menacing con- 
tinuity, its unparalleled universality. 

Xot a breath stirred the air. 

If beneath such a sky and upon such a quaking earth 
we could really conceive ^Hhe Chinese scream,’’ we 
should then really understand the speedy delirious 
deaths of the few successful fugitives from Europe 
during that week of apocalyptic woes. 

At Auxonne, in the Place d’Armes, where there 
stands a statue of Napoleon I., the whole remaining 
population assembled on the irruption of the yellow 
man, almost filling the open space, and fell to their 
knees with clasped hands, waiting. They only knew 
the nearness of the Chinese (who always, and every- 
where ran noiselessly, barefooted, or in soft shoes), 
when the sudden Chinese scream at the glimpse of the 
crowded victims burst upon their ears. 

One of the terrors of this massacre, and of others, 
was the uncertainty as to which sort of death any 
given victim might die ; one of the horrors was, that 
whatever death a Chinaman inflicted, he loudly imi- 
tated with his lips, in an instinctive way, the nature 
of the death. They came pelting in their swinging 
run, into the Place at Auxonne, and as one lifted a 
club to smite a head, he screamed inarticulately ; and 
as the club fell, he cried Shrash ! ” And as another 
caught a flying child by the heels, he screamed inar- 
ticulately ; and as he swung the frail skull against the 
base of the statue, he cried, Pop ! ” And as another 
aimed his pistol at a near man, he screamed inarticu- 
lately ; and as the pistol went off, he cried ^‘Bam !” 
And as another seized a woman from behind by her 
hair, he screamed inarticulately : and as he danced and 
jumped upon her spouting abdomen, he cried Wash ! ” 

A very large proportion of the populations of Europe 
had been absolutely unable to fly : many had not had 


3i 8 The Yellow Danger 

time, when the Chinese were upon them ; many, with 
infinite effort, had reached the coast to find no craft 
there to bear them away. Roughly speaking, about 
one-half, calling upon the rocks and hills to cover 
them, remained; many, as at Auxonne, shut up in 
fortified towns. For a time the darkness of day and 
night enabled many to hide about the country ; but it 
is doubtful if any considerable number could have owed 
a final escape to this means. 

At Epernay, half a regiment having entered the 
town toward night — though between day and night 
there was small distinction now — went marauding with 
flaring torches into every house, searching for victims 
and finding few. The streets were empty — the inhab- 
itants had vanished. In this surprising famine of 
blood the baulked hordes poked furiously about, like 
tigresses robbed of their young. At last, a party fer- 
reting around the entrance of M. Moet’s cellars, dis- 
covered the subterranean excavation which extends in 
vast vaults some nine miles through the chalky rock of 
this region. Hither for the most part the doomed 
people, in unreflecting panic, had rushed, as into the 
last hole left on earth to cover them ; and here like 
rats in a trap they were caught. With thrilling 
screams the Chinese, at the signal, ran swinging from 
their scattered search about the town, toward Moet^s in 
the main street. It had been drizzling all the day, 
and their feet were dabbled to the knees with the soft 
clay of the neighboring hill of Montigny, of which was 
made the Epernay earthenware ; so that wdthin an 
hour the long ramification of the ransacked excavations 
were a mere filth of dabbled gore and mud. The 
vaults, moreover, contained several millions of bottles 
with from four to five thousand pipes of the best 
champagne ; and here at this depth of forty feet 
below the streets, in the midst of this gloom relieved 
by rare lurid flares, there was transacted so red an orgy 
of massacre, screaming lust, and sighing drunkenness, f 
so mixed a drama of filthy infamy and sabbatic Satan- 
ism, as earth, and perhaps hell, never sa:jv. In the 
manner of grime the yellow man is ingenious ; what we 


The Chinese Scream 


319 


cannot conceive, he can do ; so that where we end he 
begins, his natural talent being for the grotesque and 
the macahre. And when the orgy grew still for very 
surfeit, when there welled from him the sigh of perfect 
peace, down dropped his head upon its pillow of flesh, 
and his snoring breath fanned the hair of the naked 
dead. 

Simultaneously, the other wine-vaults of Epernay 
were invaded ; and, above, too, the streets were strewn 
with dead and drunken. The town was burned down 
before the night was over, some thousands of China- 
men perishing in the flames. 

As for the Parisian corps and a half, fort after fort 
of the outer cemture glutted their monstrous batteries 
with carnage, and yielded. At Meudon two gallant 
companies of chasseurs a pied flung themselves down 
an escarpment to hurl back an assault with scaling- 
ladders ; they hurled back the assault, and were literary 
trampled under foot by the swarm of on-coming mul- 
titudes. Then it was the turn of Mont A'alerien. 
Bouviers fell, de Buc, Bois d’Arcis. At Satory every 
siege-gim of the Japanese was uncarriaged, and the fort 
was only taken by the sheer powerlessness of the great 
guns any longer to keep range with tlieir mangled 
rifling. Issy fell. At Chdtillon the whole stock of 
ammunition was exhausted in slaughter. Vanves fell, 
Ivry fell, Montrouge fell. Nearer and nearer closed in 
the inevitable crowding circle. The Chinese were at 
St. Cloud, at Putoux, at Suresnes, and at Sevres. 

Even while the war was raging round southern forts 
they came screaming through the Porte de St. Cloud, 
and went swarming into the Bois up the allee de 
Longchamp, making for the Porte Maillot which gives 
direct access to the cities. The iron-barred gate was 
closed, and the foremost, pressed forward by the now 
disorganized mob behind, fainted and perished in 
the block. Still onward surged the crowd, trampling 
itself in frantic, blind rage into a ghastliness of heaped- 
up death, while the gendarmerie which lined the walls 
sent whistling gusts of lead through the trees upon the 
^yer advancing hosts. Then a stream of Chine^ 


320 The Yellow Danger 

extricated themselves sideways, and with a half-run 
to the right sought to make through the trees for the 
fosse, and so for the ‘^fortification/^ And as they 
turned, they fell ; and others following, turned and 
fell. And now, the whole current began to tend in the 
way of those pioneers. Forward they are pressed, and 
press, and fall ; but they fall ever nearer to the fosse ; 
and now they are falling into it ; and down through 
the wide, ever-filling ditch they press, treading upon a 
carpet of dead flesh only ; and now there is no more 
a fosse, but a level floor of bodies ; and across this they 
rush, and attempt to climb, and fall ; and the level 
floor is no more level, but slants upward to the parapet ; 
and along this sure gangway of soft and sinking lux- 
ury, this vast snake-nest of intermixing pigtails, they 
press ; they run now they cannot fail : they gain the 
parapet ; they screamed ; and Paris is Gomorrah. 

The mystery of license to which, during all that week 
of black horror, the chief of the cities of men was a 
prey, can only be hinted here. It was well understood 
that Paris was to be the capital of the new Chinese 
world ; and it was therefore with a certain feeling of old 
proprietorship that the Chinese entered it. They dealt 
with the inhabitants as a man, returning from a long 
journey, makes short work of an accumulation of rats 
in his chief cellar. 

They stormed in a solid body up the wide Avenue de 
la Grande Armee, and also in two solid bodies, right 
and left, just within the fortifications. Near I’Etoile, 
stretching right across the breadth of the avenue, and 
also across the Boulevard de Berthier, there were bar- 
ricades of the Garde Municipale, and street-fighting, 
and massacre, and mounds of trampled yellow corpses. 
But the flood behind swept onward the flood before 
with the inevitableness of the ocean-tide. Within a 
few hours all that length of thoroughfare which the 
Parisians called the “ bonlevards exterieurs^^ was oc- 
cupied ; and the inhabitants were driven inward like 
wild horses within a ring of prairie-fire. 

Another host had entered south by the Porte dTvry 
into tho 13th arrondissement^ another from Montrouge 


The Chinese Scream' 


321 

by the Porte d’Orloans into the 14th ; and now, swarm- 
ing in their millions, they infested the ways and by- 
ways of the city, its squares and its bedrooms, its 
stables and its public buildings, with glad rage, with 
prying Baccliic stare, with gaping mouth. 

Here was the Xew Pekin. 

The bony visage of the yellow man, in moments of 
unbridled lust and mad excitement, is a brutal spec- 
tacle. The countenance is a travesty ; the divine 
image becomes a mask of hellish farce. It is as though 
a panting skeleton played a comedy. Tliere all is seen 
— the nakedness of the passions, the bare, rampart 
hideousness ; the face becomes an indecency. What 
added to the frenzy of these riots was the fact that 
among the invaders were sweating women, crazy with 
heat and dust, and the instinct of blood, and the ulti- 
mate wantonness of crime. 

On the night of the entry, on each of the iron rail- 
ings in the wide space of the Place de la Concorde 
glared an impaled head. At the Invalides, in the cir- 
cular pit where lies the tomb of Xapoleon, there lay a 
compact mass of bodies reaching to the level of the 
railings ; and on this bed of mortality lay a score of 
Chinese men and women in exhausted sleep. 

Here, too, was subterranean massacre in catacomb 
and egoitt. On the Quai St. Michel a body of fifty 
Quartier Latin students stood waiting in proud, pale, 
silent patience, holding hands, and died smiling. 

While the city from La Villette to Boulogne was 
still one shrieking Sodom, Yen How arrived in Paris. 

Tliough eager to be away to the coast, he had come 
hither to inaugurate a ceremony, which was to be 
memorable. This was on the Tuesday of the sunless 
week. , , 

He lost no time. He summoned to him at the Elysee 
captains and generals of brigades, and commanded 
them to make ready the people for the long-predeter- 
mined Eitual. 

To-day he was no more Yen How the General, he 
was Yen How the Prophet-Priest. 

He had with liim the Chiam, the hereditary high 


322 The Yellow Danger f 

priest, counting an Aaronic ancestry of a thousand 
years ; he had with him a gorgeous retinue of bouzis ; 
he had with him the idol of Quanheim, the Chinese 
Virgin, sitting among cushions in rich robes — the idol 
of Matsoa, who swam from a far country to China 
through many seas in one night — the idol of Quonin, 
Virgin of the Korth — the idol of Fe, the eagle-headed 
joss — the idol of Minifo — the idol of many-handed Puffa 
— many idols ; he had with him the books of Confucius, 
and the books of Tansin ; and he draped himself in 
the robes and solemn gauds of the Arch-Priest, that he 
might inaugurate and set up in one central Temple of 
the West the religion of the East. 

He chose Notre Dame. 

And the work of torture, and infamy, and slaughter, 
now nearly over, ceased ; and on that day the people 
flocked toward the Cite, and the ancient church of 
Christ. 

Never was assembled such a multitude within a city. 
To lend the last impressiveness to the ceremony, Yen 
How had ordained that these should be the sole public 
idols, for the time being, brought over from China. A 
Chinaman without idols is like an opium-smoker with- 
out opium. This gorgeous ritual, therefore, was in 
itself quite sufficient, once for all, to flx and establish 
Paris as the center of the new Empire. In the earlier 
hours of the day messages were everywhere flashed 
over the Continent, and to China, stating the exact 
hour of the Inauguration ; and at that hour, account 
having been taken of differences of longitude, by far 
the greater portion of the yellow race bowed its mut- 
tering head, prostrated itself, and turned a jaundiced 
eye to Heaven. 

Yen How, with thick ivory ring on thumb, arrayed 
in a blaze of color, was borne in open palanquin of gold 
all along the Eue de Kivoli and by the Pont de PArcole 
through the kneeling throng, preceded by thousands 
of bouzis, bearing the majestic god Fo, and the huge- 
bellied, broad-faced Gan. 

The line of route was illuminated with the myriad 
variegation of lanterns, as was also the interior of 


The Chinese Scream 


323 

Notre Dame. While everywhere, from Montmartre to 
Moiitrouge, a noise of jangling hells rang through the 
somber air. At the hour of the sacrifice, steaming 
human heads were offered to Matsoa, as a variation on 
the usual boiled heads of the pig. 

In the tiny shrines which, on three sides, surround 
the nave, where pricket-candlesticks and rich, religious 
decor had long represented the rather foppish religiosity 
of the Parisian “ dhote” were set up the statues of 
grotesque and grinning josses. The Crucified gave 
place to Fo, and the Immaculate to Quanheim. 

The studied pomp of this memorable Hegira was 
overwhelming in its effect. The prostrate multitudes 
groaned in inward agonies of veneration ; and the God 
of their veneration was, in reality, Yen How. 

When the sacred books were opened and solemnly 
presented, it was not forgotten that Confucius, who 
wrote them, was mysteriously there, in carnal presence, 
before their favored eyes. 

He, for his part, the little doctor — even in that 
grandiose hour of his triumph — smiled inwardly, as 
usual. In all the sun and earth there was hardly heat 
to melt that ice. 

Only where the focussed rays of self touched the 
secret spot, he warmed, and fiowed, and felt. 

The pageant of Inauguration was at two. By four 
the broken Paris-Calais railway was repaired, and Yen 
How with his retinue set off westward. 

Already Paris presented a strange sight, apart from 
the heaps of dead in the streets, and the bodiless heads 
and arms with which the screaming Chinese played 
ball. She looked Chinese. The Mongolian race, like 
the English, can adapt itself readily. All the winding 
length of the Kue du Faubourg St. Honore was, in two 
days, bright with gauds and hues. Shops had been 
appropriated by individuals, who made haste to find 
pigments to daub the legend in characters which seemed 
to grin. Lanterns were hung out. The gay city 
assumed another tone of gaiety : vermilion on her 
houses, and vermilion in her streets. 

The work of blood recommenced. 


324 The Yellow Danger 

At battered Marseilles, the Chinese, entering by the 
Boulevard de la Madeleine, found a deserted city, filled 
with the roar of the famishing animals at the Zoological 
Gardens. Their only prey was the very aged, and a 
number of nuns, medical men, and invalids, collected 
chiefly at the ^N^ew Hospital. In their squeeze to get 
at these a number of Chinese were crushed to death. 

At Lyons an incredible melee, made up of the mad- 
men of the hospital of Antiquaille, of Chinese, and of 
Soeurs de la Charite, raged for an hour through the 
vast, straggling building. Beneath the Pont de la 
Mulatiere there occurred a block of coiq^ses which 
spread gradually upward between the banks of the 
Saone ; and this, within two days, aided by the stifling 
heat of the stagnant and sunless air, resulted in a pes- 
tilence among the invaders. At once the dying men 
were seized with the instinct to rush northward toward 
Paris, the home of the gods ; and it was only the 
promptness of Yen How, who ordered the clearage 
of the river, and the instant shooting of every sick 
Chinaman, which prevented more widespread disaster. 

At old Valence, where some failure of commissariat 
— caused by the deportation southward of provisions, 
and the voluntary destruction of the vineyards — had 
occurred, there was scarcity fcr a day, and food in 
plenty the next. The low hedge that divides the yellow 
man from omnivorousness was in Europe found to be 
very low indeed — where the flesh of men is not 3^ellow, 
but pink, like the new-born mouse. At the first spur 
of hunger, the hedge was leapt with an easy bound. 

For a day hard scarcity ; the next, flesh in plenty — 
roast and sodden, bake and stew. 

Meanwhile, if there was a man in Europe who had a 
strong will neither to be eaten when dead, nor tortured 
alive at slow fires, nor shot with arrows, nor pierced 
with bullets, nor pulped with the clubs which the 
Chinese use for pounding rice — that man was the 
duellist Edrapol. 

Thrice had he been caught, and thrice he had 
escaped. 

He reached Dieppe, and for the second time within 


The Chinese Scream 


32s 

two days, lie had no sooner reached his point of aim 
than the irruption came. 

He ran at the first breathless news down to the 
basins ; and, with a crowd of hunted men and women, 
saw the last little boat making her way, thronged with 
people, out of the mouth of the outer basin. 

He had forgotten, in his mad haste, both sword and 
pistols ; and as he saw hope cut off by way of the sea, 
his first instinct was to rush back, and get what was 
like life to him — a weapon in his hand. 

Even as he ran through the street, along which men 
and women were rushing in wild -eyed distraction, he 
heard the scream. It had reached Dieppe. 

Edrapol stopped, and gazed crazily about. His big 
soft felt hat was pressed back hard on his head ; the 
long hanging ends of his white mustache shook. It 
was not a mustache — it was a drapery. 

Here was a stern end to an existence of pleasure ; 
here an absence of all punctilio intruding itself upon a 
life which had made punctilio its bride. The Chinese 
slew without seconds,^’ or ceremony; though the 
aggressors, they chose their own weapons. The trifler’s 
heart sank within him. 

Round he leered, standing a moment in the third 
jiosition, as if to parry the tierce thrust — his hat pressed 
hard back on his head. 

The scream came from a side-street ; it was very 
near : his inn was before him ; he flew forward. 

He reached the deserted house, rushed up the stairs 
to a room, and dropped to his knees before a portman- 
teau. From his arsenal of weapons he chose a six- 
chambered revolver and a dainty rapier. With these 
in his hand he felt better. 

He stood and listened, his beard, his whole body, 
shaking. 

In about a minute the place was filled ’vvdth noise, 
shouted gibberish, shrill laugh. Edrapol bolted his 
door. 

But it was soon discovered, and battered in with 
clubs. About ten Chinese, hot, crazy, bent upon blood, 
rushed in upon him, screaming. 


326 The Yellow Danger 

But this time they reckoned without their host. A 
man does not acquire a European reputation for 
nothing. 

Edrapol put his legs into the exact pose of elegance 
suited to the occasion, and with the revolver in his left 
hand and the rapier in his right, he began to kill scien- 
tifically. Every shot entered the middle of a heart or 
brain, and every stroke failed not to sever the intended 
artery. The last pigtail dropped upon the writhing 
corpses of his fellows, and Edrapol leant a little on the 
handle of his dripping rapier, the model of grace. 

It was near sunset then, about two weeks before the 
dark time. 

He crept from the chamber. The house was empty. 
He found a recess in a wine-cellar, in which he hid till 
three the next morning. 

The house was then full of other Chinese, and the 
corpses of white women ; but the living were as uncon- 
scious as the dead, drunk with the orgy of the day. 
Edrapol passed through them, and made his escape from 
the town eastwards and southwards. 

For a week he lurked in a little empty farmhouse 
between Dieppe and St. Valery ; and then some Chinese 
came to the farmhouse ; but Edrapol escaped. 

For another week he seems to have dodged and 
lurked about in that neighborhood, near the shore, in 
the vain hope of somehow getting away in a ship. 
But no ship came. 

He was carrying about with him a piece of chees'e 
which he found at the farmhouse, and this, with occa- 
sional autumn hedge-fruit, appeased his hunger. He 
remembered the bonbons of Moissier with regret. 

Unexpectedly, one midnight, walking along the 
beach, he came upon a broken hut, and near it a 
small seamy skiff, containing half an oar. He was 
just able to move her ; and after three hours" work, 
got her to the water’s edge. 

He put off in her, and as the water oozed in, he 
baled it with his voluminous hat. When he was not 
baling, he paddled. 

His notion of reaching England in this fashion was 


The Chinese Scream 


327 

hopeless ; but the old duellist, the luxurious loule- 
vardier, clung to life with the desperation of a pam- 
pered woman. And he fell upon his feet where another 
would have failed. 

On the third morning, he was picked up, half dead, 
by a small barque, almost in mid-channel. She was the 
Conrad, which had borne Hardy to Nagasaki ; she was 
then, for the first time, on her way to England. So 
that, late that night, EdrapoEs glittering fingers pulled 
the patriarchal tassels of his mustache on Newhaven 
broken wharf. And there he examined the edge of 
his rusted rapier. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


THE MEETING. 

As for the girl Seward, Hardy was told by his agent 
that she occupied a flat in Bloomsbury, a flat rather 
well furnished, where, with a servant of her own, she 
lived alone. And, without flve minutes' delay. Hardy 
was in a carriage hurrying to the address given. 

He doubted if this could be the girl he wanted. She 
lived, certainly, under another name. And how came 
Ada, the nurse-maid, to be flourishing in such a style? 
Morbidly anxious as he was to have her safe and sure 
in his own keeping, it hardly occurred to him that this 
very opulence accounted for the reticences and hesita- 
tions of her brother with regard to her. 

But in twenty minutes he was sure. On a third floor 
a servant led him into a smug drawing-room, and there, 
on the wall, he saw an oval colored photograph : and 
he recognized the slim bust, and the little Chinese eyes, 
and the piquant Geisha-girl face, warm-yellow in tint. 

At the door, the servant, a narrow-browed, mean-look- 
ing creature, had told him that Miss Seward was away ; 
and as he wished to speak further, she had asked him 
within. 

Where, then, was Miss Seward? 

She had gone away. 

When ? 

Four hours before. 

Where to ? 

To Dover. 

Was that certain ? 

Quite certain. 

328 


329 


The Meeting 

But whatever had she gone to Dover for ? 

That the servant could not say, or would not say. 

But was Miss Seward coming back soon ? 

The servant did not think so. Miss Seward had left 
her sufficient money to keep her for some time. 

Did the servant know much of Miss Seward's private 
affairs ? 

She knew something. She and Miss Seward were 
very good friends indeed. Miss Seward sometimes 
spoke of things to her. But, of course, she did not 
know everything. 

What did everything '' mean? 

It meant nothing. 

Then Hardy began to woo, to implore ; then to speak 
of big matters ; to say that all this was important to 
more than he could name. But the girl smirked, and 
did not follow that flight. The last thing that oc- 
curred to him was a bribe ; only in the flnal moment of 
his despair did the thought flash through his mind. He 
hinted at hazard a hundred pounds, and the promptness 
of the response surprised him. 

It was a large sum for a poor girl. 

Yes ; and all he wanted to know was why Miss Seward 
had gone to Dover. 

She had gone in order to go over to France to the 
little Chinaman who was in love with her. 

And now it was the turn of the servant to be sur- 
prised — at the swift energy with which Hardy vanished 
from her eyesight. 

He bore on his breast the initials of this girl, Seward; 
she was hisy his very own. 

But he was in this dilemma : that things far more 
momentous on their surface demanded his personal 
presence where he was. It needed all the acumen of 
his shrewd eye to determine which was the main fact 
which must influence his conduct. 

He drove to the nearest post-office, and telegraphed 
to the Manager of the London, Chatham and Dover 
Kailway. 

There was at this moment not a hope left to Britain. 
The Admiralty had chains of steamers, intercommuni- 


330 


The Yellow Danger 


eating with each other, and with the southeast coast, 
whose task was to watch and to report. And the na- 
tion now knew that on the morrow of this final-look- 
ing, sunless Wednesday was due the horror of ultimate 
overthrow — the going beneath the wave of the last 
emerging rock of the old world. 

Nor had the general mass of the nation the faintest 
suspicion of any power in the earth which could save, 
or even momentarily help, it. 

If a heavenly host should * ‘ ^ rapped 



in flames of vengeance. 


surge 


might be stemmed. But though the people were 
now far from doubting the interest of the gods, their 
reasons were the offspring of too advanced a period of 
Time to await any such manifestation. 

It was known that a wholly inconceivable number of 
floating things of every kind were massed upon the 
extreme northwest coast of France ; and that in their 
passage over to England they would have one of the 
finest war-fleets the world had ever seen to protect 
them — against nothing ! 

And now — in this hour of world-tragedy — the Brit- 
ish people offered to the “ Eyes that regard" a good 
spectacle. The panic was gone. In such a place as the 
City of London there was, of course, no business done ; 
but everywhere else there was business done. Shops 
were open ; post-offices were open ; the printing-press 
throbbed. If a man met a man in the street, one 
pallid lip spoke to the other pallid consciousness of the 
dark weather, of a business matter, of a family affair 
— of everything except the Chinese. The subject of 
the Chinese in these last days was rather looked upon 
as being in bad taste. The lower classes spoke of 
them — but, in general, with splendidly curved lip. 
With a sublime stoicism, with a regal disdain, Britain 
waited for her overthrow. 

Nearly every one made a point of going about his 
ordinary work. 

In the last resort, the lip remains. It is the final 
retort of a noble man, of a grand nation, to destiny. 
‘‘ The mind and spirit remain invincible. . , 


331 


The Meeting 

What could Britain do now? She could smile. 

And by this her pallid smile in that hour, she proved, 
in truth, her divine right to the Empire of the Earth. 

Besides smiling, every man, and most boys, managed 
to provide themselves with some sort of weapon, sharp 
or blunt, dull or gleaming, which they laid quietly by. 

A gentleman, in Gray^s Inn had for a week been 
training a fine specimen of the British bull-dog to fly 
at a Mongolian effigy set up in the gardens. 

In reality, the arm of England was as strong as her 
soul ; but she knew the strength of her soul, and did 
not suspect the strength of her arm. 

Her arm was John Hardy. 

At least he was the main muscle of it. He was as 
much the West as Yen How was the East. 

But what is this shadow that dogs his steps ? — some- 
thing absurd, grotesque, yet terrible ? 

At eight he had sent the telegram to the railway 
company. At nine he drove once more from Cavendish 
Square, leaving a host of orders with an almost per- 
manent committee of naval men who now attended 
upon him. And he had no sooner driven away, than 
a man in wide sombrero was asking at his door if he was 
at home. 

In this man, Edrapol, there was not now, if there 
had ever been, an atom of venom against Hardy. He 
was merely the absurd slave of punctilio. In the view 
of that frivolous old brain, nothing in the world could 
compare in importance with the importance of an 
affawe d’honneur, a delicate point, a shade of usage. 
The thing first of all that a gentleman must do— in 
every case — whatever happened — was to settle a 
delicate point.” 

Also, he knew the greatness of Hardy. And his 
vanity was prone, the moment he found himself in 
safety on English soil, to measure swords with him. 

He knew, too, that soon the Chinese must be here 
also, and then . . . what could be done? Voila une 
affaire manquee. Nothing could be more annoying to 
a gentleman than an affaire manquee. 

It was clear that whatever he did must be instan- 


332 The Yellow Danger 

taneously done. The morrow would, perhaps, not do 
his affair.” 

He took the broad hat from his long-haired white 
head, and he bowed largely, as old Bobbie himself in- 
formed him that Hardy was from home. 

Edrapol asked whither he had gone, and the old man 
said : 

To Dover, sir.” 

Edrapol asked no more. He had brought over on 
his person a good sum in specie ; he had also rings on 
his fingers worth money. He jumped into a cab, and 
drove in haste away. 

With that noble phlegm of which we have spoken, 
things in England still, at this eleventh hour, ran, for 
the most part, their usual course. Eew people were 
moving about, yet the trains went empty, and the show 
of civilization continued when its reality was like a 
spent heart, about to beat its final throb. 

So that Edrapol found a longed-for train about half 
an hour after Hardy^s departure ; and both engines, 
flying simultaneously through Kent, were express.” 

As for Hardy, he reached Harbour Station in his 
rocking train within an hour and twenty minutes from 
his start. 

He hurried to the Cross AYall, and there had no diffi- 
culty in learning that the girl had certainly not hired 
any local craft, nor started from Dover that day. Nor 
had any craft left Dover eastward for some time. 

The natural conclusion was that Ada Seward was still 
in Dover. 

Nevertheless, Hardy spied about the harbor for 
some time among the steamboats, and pointed out one 
to a blue-jacket named Brassey, who accompanied liim. 
Brassey was to arrange with her captain; have her fires 
lit and banked ; and Hardy scribbled a note to South 
Front Barracks, signing his name with the initials 
P. C. N. S. ; it was a request for a small three-pounder 
and ammunition, which he instructed Brassey to 
mount forward on the designated steamer. He himself 
hurried to the Eoyal Ship Hotel, followed by a train of 
watermen, policemen, and residents, eager to serve him. 


333 


The Meeting 

Nothing was so certain as that, if the girl were 
there, in a small place like Dover, he would quickly 
know it. In a few minutes fifty men were dissecting 
the town for him, and very soon he had the whole his- 
tory of her stay in Dover; 

She had put up for two hours at the Lord Warden 
Hotel, and had then left it, taking her portmanteau 
in a cab. In the small period of her stay she had made 
herself singularly friendly with one of the chamber- 
maids of the hotel, and confided to her the surprising 
secret that she was about to set out for Dunkirk. The 
cabman who took her away was found ; and he stated 
that, having driven for some distance east towards St. 
Margaret-at-Cliffe, along the high-road, his fare had 
ordered him to turn down a by-road, leading directly 
to the shore. His surprise was immense when, about 
a mile from the Upper Foreland Lighthouse, which 
was burning all day, she again ordered him to stop and 
take down her trunk. He did so, laid it on tlie sands, 
and was paid. The last he saw as he drove away was 
the girl sitting on the box, with lonely outlook over 
the dim sea. 

Was there no ship in the offing? 

There might have been ; he could not say. One could 
not see many yards over the sea through the dark. He 
was certain that there was no ship with burning lights 

Here, then, was the last link : the chain ending at the 
girl watching the drear sea from her box on the sand. 

It did not, however, need a very vivid imagination to 
conjecture why she sat there ; and in half an hour 
after hearing the news. Hardy had the North Pier 
Signal-Light dwindling into nothingness on his port 
quarter ; and the Downs-trotter which bore him was 
panting and quivering as she had not panted for many 
a day. He calculated that the girl had, at most, an 
hour’s start of him. 

As he passed out between the two piers, Edrapol ar- 
rived at Priory Station, and began to make inquiries 
for Hardy. After a time he heard the truth, but his 
disappointment was solaced by the information that 
Hardy would very likely return before morning. 


334 The Yellow Danger 

At this time Ada Seward, borne in one of those safe, 
hut rather clumsy, Havre- Antwerp boats, was fifteen 
miles or so on her way from the English coast. 

Some mouths before this a singular adventure had 
befallen the girl. 

Walking along the street, she had been accosted by a 
man— a Yankee, as she judged by his goat beard, his 
lank lounge, and his talk. 

He nodded with cool confidence to her, and he said 
this : 

Well, young woman, I guess you are in luck’s way 
this time, anyhow.” 

In ten minutes he had left her, and leaving her, in- 
sinuated £50 in Bank of England notes in her hand. 
This, he explained, was only ‘‘to go on with” for a 
day or so. 

He was not the principal, he said, but only an agent 
— “ matter of business ” — in which, to tell the God’s 
truth, he did not stand in so badly. But he was not 
the principal in the deal : the principal she would see 
on the next evening at the hour and place which he 
named. 

The “ principal ” was a large, pigtailed, silk-dressed 
Chinaman — a great man in his country. 

All he wanted of Ada Seward was to be permitted 
to buy her grand houses, and carriages, and footmen, 
and downs, and luxuries. For this nothing, on his 
honor, in return, save that she should be under his 
eye, and obey him as a daughter. The Yankee acted 
as go-between, and Ada thought she w'ould like all this. 

So, away now with Pattison’s, and the nursery; and 
shopping now all day for Ada at Peter Kobinson’s, the 
carriage waiting outside. 

She changed her name, breaking with her poor, but 
proud, relations, who, in spite of her protestations, be- 
lieved that her foot had slipped. Her brother tossed 
back the gold she offered him into her face. 

Then came proposals from the “principal.” Ada 
was wanted in China, where wealth, beyond all dream, 
awaited her. She refused. 

How first she heard the name of Yen How in the mat- 


The Meeting 335 

ter, and began to understand. That little doctor at 
whom she had scoffed. . . . 

Then came pressure, threats. But apart from the 
pressure, and the threats, she understood now that she 
had sold herself into slavery. She was subjected to a 
most rigorous, unremitting surveillance, like an upper- 
class woman in China ; and she had at bottom a rather 
touchy, independent pride of character. Add to this 
surveillance the pressure, the threats, and to these her 
uneasy consciousness of her people's displeasure, and 
what she did may be guessed : she collected all the 
trinkets about her, which now amounted to many hun- 
dreds of pounds' value, and she ran away. 

It was then that she set up on her own account in 
the Bloomsbury flat. Already she was too much of a 
lady to do without a servant. 

She hid herself with such absolute craft, that neither 

principal," nor agent," nor for a long time the 
agents of Hardy, nor her brother, could And her. 

It was on learning this fHght that Yen How decided 
that, whatever happened, none of the women of Eng- 
land must be killed. . . . ! 

Then, when the end was near, when it was certain 
that England was doomed, a noble throe leapt into life 
within this girl. She conceived the quixotic, but sub- 
jectively flue, notion of sacriflcing herself for her coun- 
try. On condition that England was spared, she 
would go to Yen. 

And boldly breaking from her seclusion, she pre- 
sented herself with this proposal before the agent " ; 
and agent and principal, in a room in Portland Street, 
where the principal lived now in strictest retirement, 
gloated over this thing. 

And they two, with elaborate cautions and precau- 
tions, made two voyages to the French coast, one with 
the glad message in the girl's own writing, from which 
they returned with Yen How's come " ; and one to 
arrange minute preliminaries of the meeting. 

And thus it happened that in order to get to France, 
Ada Seward sat alone on her box on the F oreland sands, 
and looked across the sea. 


336 The Yellow Danger 

She was genuinely confident that she was saving ” 
something large and not very definite ; and, as she 
stepped into the boat which quickly made its appear- 
ance at the surf, the thought in her beating, yet bold, 
heart was this : What a One am I ! 

Ill order to lay his eyes once more upon this girl at 
the earliest moment. Yen How was ready to fiing to 
the winds, or at least postpone, a world of afl'airs 
which no head but his could surely organize. But 
the momentum of events overpowered him. He could 
not go. 

He himself chose the safest-looking, tidiest, and 
smartest of the smaller craft of which the Outer Har- 
bour, the Commercial Dock, and the Yaval Dock 
were now one thickly crowded mass. 

He had then been at Dunkirk two days, making the 
Casino des Dunes his headquarters. But when he 
looked abroad upon that once neatest of cities, and con- 
sidered the heaped-up horror of its red streets, and the 
whirling drama of mixed revel and warlike preparations 
going forward within its walls, he knew that here, at 
least, his bride could not come. 

Standing, however, a little back from the Sea Baths 
at Rosendael, two miles away, was a lonely villa, backed 
by the desolate sand-dunes, and within ear-shot of 
the continual rumoring of the shore. Here, at eleven 
in the night, almost alone, restless, perambulating, 
expecting, was Yen How. 

He had rescued himself with a sort of stealth from 
Dunkirk. 

He was like some singer, the darling of the world, 
who yet is the secret victim of drink ; and while the 
plaudits still ring through the opera-house, he, in the 
inmost recess of the green-rooms, has the tilting bottle 
at his lips. 

By midnight the lights of Dunkirk were well in sight 
of the steamer which bore Ada Seward. The boat was 
manned by Japanese, men in whom Yen How had 
confidence. But she was unarmed. 

She was traveling at her utmost speed, and carried 
only one light — a mast headlight. 


The Meeting 337 

This fact made her outre, an object of observation ; 
it was sufiicient to hint her identity ; and beliind her, 
straining every timber to catch her, came frothing a 
slightly faster boat. 

So that when the boat ahead was perhaps not lialf a 
mile from her anchorage opposite Rosendael, the boat 
behind was five hundred yards only from the boat 
ahead ; and it was then that the former sent a guess- 
work shot, but a shot aimed by Hardy's own hand, into 
the stern-works of the other. 

The Japanase- boat at once shot round, and went 
steaming in a changed direction, rudderless. Con- 
sternation reigned on her decks : over the sea came to 
Hardy's ship sounds of shouted voices. 

The girl, who had been lying on the red-velvet cabin- 
cushions, rushed on deck. And as she reached it, 
again she heard the boom of cannon, and screamed. 

And all that happened from that moment during ten 
minutes was a mere horrid whirl to her ; there was a 
scampering of men, and yells, and everywhere a rush 
of the sea, and a leap into a boat, and a singing in her 
ears, and a smell like brimstone, and the fiash of a 
bull's-eye in her eyes. 

Then she felt firmness beneath her feet, and presently 
she was crying, half-lying back on cushions. 

Hardy, sitting near, eyed her curiously for some 
minutes of silence. Here was a force greater than a 
100-ton gun, great as the moon and the tides ; old 
Astarte sobbing there in a dainty West-end bonnet — 
the strong sex of Woman. 

The presence of the girl, in his power at last filled him 
with a certain calm. With her, he felt, he might win. 

The sobs died gradually lower. And he said : 

You feel better now ?" 

Yes— thank you — sir," she answered jerkily. 

Up to now she had not recognized him. 

Then I can talk to you. You understand, that it 
was to get you that I sank the other ship ? " 

Me 9” she queried, sitting up at once in wide- 
awake interest. 

Yes. I knew you were going to Yen How, and I 
2Z 


338 The Yellow Danger 

wanted at all hazards to prevent you. Whatever in- 
duced you to act in that unworthy way ? 

“ Which unworthy way, sir ? But stop, are 
you 

Yes — we have met before. But that is not the 
point. Tell me, why have you been so foolish and 
wicked, Ada ? ” 

Oh, come now, this is a little too much, you 
know ! ” cried Ada. ‘‘ Who are you ? And what right 
have you to take me in this way ? I foolish and 
wicked ? It is absolutely untrue ; and I donT think 
you’d be ungentlemanly enough to treat a poor girl in 
this way if you knew all.” 

“Welltlien, tell me all. And do not cry, because 
that wastes time.” 

‘^Oh, it is all very well to talk in that way, sir !” 
she answered saucily, though her heart misgave her 
at the look of the face before her. ‘MYho are you ? 
I am not aware by what right ” 

But you are wasting my time. John Hardy is my 
name, and I have the right of a man trying to serve 
his country. Tell me now.” 

Oh, John Har ! Well, you will excuse me, 

won’t you ? I was not to know that. But was it you, 
then, all the time, at the music ” 

Yes. How tell, me.” 

AVhy I was going, you mean ? AVell, if it comes to 
that, wasn’t I going for the same reason which you say 
— to serve my country, too ? ” 

‘‘ Is that really so ?” 

^at is, sir.” 

And how ? ” 

‘‘Well, since you seem to know about me and Yen 
How — didn’t he give me to understand that, if I came, 
he would save England from the Chinese ? And isn’t 
that why I am going to him ? to make him keep his 
army away from England ? ” 

At this exhibition of inherent confidence in her 
power over Yen, this radical, unquestioning trust in 
the might of her sex, a smile flitted through the brain 
of Hardy. He said : 


The Meeting 339 

Then you are not wicked, after all ; but only 
foolish. As I have you in my hands, and as I am going 
to take you back to England, I will let you understand 
why. You are right in believing that Yen How is very 
much attached to you ; that is so ; I know it 'well. I 
believe that his attachment to you is as extraordinary 
in its force as the man himself is extraordinary. Well 
now ; but can you be so simple as to think that the way 
to make use of this infatuation for the good of your 
country is to come and put yourself in his power in 
this fashion ? Supposing he even tried to keep his 
armies from going over to England and killing us all, 
he could not permanently succeed, you know ; and 
supposing he succeeded, you have sense enough to 
know, have you not, that England would be no good at 
all with the rest of the world full of yellow men ? In 
that case she had better go under, too, like the rest, 
donT you think ? You would not care to live in such 
a kennel, nor would I, nor any of us English. So, 
you see, you are throwing away yourself for nothing. 
But I, now, have a better card to play, I am thinking ! 
Do you know that I have been searching everywhere 
for you for weeks ? My idea was this: that this vast 
Chinese people would be no good at all when confronted 
with the harsh, steady, untiring frown of England and 
America — provided we could only get their leader well 
dead. That is the first thing to do. Yen How is the 
weak point of all that great host ; and you, Ada, are 
the weak point of Yen How. That is why I wanted to 
have you safe in my hands all this time, so as to be 
sure that you were there. If you are in England, I 
have not a doubt that Yen How will come, like a fish 
to the bait ; and if he comes, as sure as fire wefil catch 
him. But if I let you go over to him in this way to 
France, you see, don’t you, how that would spoil 
everything 

I see, sir,” said Ada. 

Well, now, in what we have got to do to-night you 
can help us : we want to let Yen How know that you 
are safe in England, and in my hands. He must not 
have any doubt about that in his mind ; and as he is 


340 The Yellow Danger 

expecting you, I suppose, in the ship I have sunk, he 
will have a doubt when she does not arrive, unless we 
enlighten him. He will think, very likely, that you 
are lost with the crew of the ship ; and that suspicion 
may be enough to keep him out of our hands. So, 
then, I want you to tell me where, and under what 
conditions, you were to meet Yen How to-night.” 

I can hardly say exactly,” she replied ; he is in 
a house by itself near the shore.” 

‘Hs he alone ? ” 

“Tliey told me that there was hardly any one with 
him.” 

‘‘ There is a single light just ahead of us in shore : 
is that the place, do you know ? ” 

“ It may be, sir ; I should think it would be. I 
cannot say.” 

Hardy jumped sharply up, and called ‘‘Brassey !” 
in a shout that made him cough. 

Brassey at once appeared — a beardless. Cockney- 
looking man. 

How far are we in ? ” asked Hardy. 

“ About a quarter of a mile, sir.” 

Xo lights on board showing ?” 

“ Xo, sir.” 

Pick three men to go with you and me in the boat ; 
ask if they can shoot at all, and give them the pistols ; 
better look to yours and mine. Tell them to stop 
speed. And find me at once, Brassey, a pair of scissors, 
if you can.” 

On a side-table in the cabin were pens, ink, and 
paper. Hardy sat and wrote a few words ; and almost 
as soon as he had finished Brassey was at his side with 
a pair of scissors. 

Hardy at once hurried across to where Ada Seward 
sat ; he muttered : 

If you do not mind — just one little lock. ...” 

Before she knew, he had clipped a tendril of her 
light-reddish hair. 

He returned now to the table, and enclosed the hair 
with the scribbled sheet in an envelope, which he 
directed: Yen How, Europe.” 


34t 


The Meeting 

On the sheet he had written : 

From John Hardy to Wm How. 

‘‘Hair of Miss Seward, who is in the safe keeping 
of Jolin Hardy, at 11 a Cavendish Sq^uaro, London. 

A few minutes later, wrapped to his ears in a long 
black ulster, he was at the tiller of a boat making for 
the shore. 

The sea was calm and only a slow, rolling Iruit from 
the breaker-line informed with its murmurous mono- 
tone the very drear and dark night. 

The air was stagnant as the vapid atmosphere of 
some dead world. It seemed pervaded by a certain 
visible gloom. 

In ten minutes, Hardy, with a spring, was upon 
Chinese territory. The three men put off again a 
little from land ; Brassey stationed himself on the wet 
sand, instructed how to act in case of a preconcerted 
signal ; alone Hardy moved forward. 

He had in one hand the letter, and in the other a 
pistol. 

Yonder, shining steadily through the murky dark, 
was a light, which seemed nearer than it was ; half a 
mile along the east stretch of fine sand lay Rosendael, 
but invisible, deserted. The noise of Dunkirk could 
not be heard, but a blurred hint of luminosity marked 
its situation. A stone's throw away, on the left, stood 
a row of five bathing-machines. The upward-tend- 
ing region of sand-hill and dune behind the villa was 
lost in gloom. 

A"et the near was not invisible. Hardy having passed 
the broad band of level sand, was able to make his way 
with tolerable precision among the knolls, and light, 
uneven ground. Once he collided with a low back- 
less bench, half sunken askew in a scraggy growth of 
grass ; once and again he stumbled into a hole of sand. 

The house was very far. It stood on a slightly 
raised plateau of firmer ground, facing the sea ; and 
the light seen from the sea was in an open window 
near the ground. The villa was white, and small ; its 
doors and windows Gothic. 

He stole stooping to the window, and looked in. 


34^ The Yellow Danger 

The room, lighted by a lamp, was a species of salon. 
On a chair in a corner burned a Chinese lantern. 

From a window on the right side also he saw ooze a 
radiance from witliin, and with cautious tread he ap- 
proached it also. The casement was latticed, and 
overgrown with chevrefeuille. But he was able to 
observe that the room was gaudily decorated, tapestried 
with green and crimson silk, in the center a spread 
table, laden with fruit and plate of gold. A multitude 
of colored lanterns made it a nest of variegated 
glamours. And here, busy about the table, he saw two 
richly-dressed Chinese. 

He made the tour of the house, and saw no other 
living thing. All was dead silence and stagnation. 
He came back to the front wdndow, dropped in the 
letter directed to Yen How, and turned away. 

His way now was downhill, and he walked faster, 
with less precaution, swinging freely along. He had 
gone on in this way for perhaps five minutes, when 
he stopped suddenly short, all eyes and ears. He 
had heard the distinct sound of footsteps near. 

In twm or three seconds the muzzle of a pistol was 
at his forehead, and the muzzle of his pistol was at the 
forehead of a man. 

They peered closely into each other’s face. 

‘MVell, you do not fire, and I will not, ” said the 
man coolly. 

He was not an Englishman — something in his into- 
nation showed that ; yet' he spoke English. 

He had, in fact, recognized Hardy ; but Hardy did 
not recognize him. 

It is agreed ? ” the man said. 

Well. ” 

Drop your pistol. ” 

You drop yours. ” 

And you promise ? ” 

‘^Yes. ” 

There was a thud on the ground, and a moment after 
another. 

Poh ! You have lost your chance,” said the man. 

Then Hardy knew Yen. 


The Meeting 343 

Even though it was a totally different Yen from 
the pompous pigtailed Arch-Priest, the great Apostle, 
who had been awaiting, with restless wanderings over 
the dunes, his tarrying bride. It was Yen in simple 
English clothes, with a hard felt hat over his bald fore- 
head, and without queue behind. 

The consciousness of failure, of folly, thrilled 
through Hardy like a pain. 

He had, in truth, lost the best possible chance. 

‘‘ Well,” he said after a minute, ‘^and you have lost 
yours too. Yen How.” 

will get you another time, boy.” 

^^If I do not get you.” 

‘‘Well, well,” said Yen. 

They had moved on a few steps — together. There 
was silence in the darkness. Already in the two men 
was working the strange law whose operation they were 
to feel for long hours that night : the law which made 
it next to impossible to them to tear themselves one 
from the other. 

Yen How hit upon the same half-sunken bench upon 
which Hardy had stumbled. Hardy put liis foot upon 
it, and leant his elbow on his knee at one end. At tho 
other Yen How sat down. Below them was the un- 
dulant spread of weed-patched sand, and the vague 
noising of the sea. 


Yen How, who was smoking, took the cigar from 
his lips, and said : 

“So you got away, after all ?” 

Hardy did not answer. 

How did you get away?” asked Yen. 

“ God, I suppose, let me free, that I might strangle 
you yet. Yen,” said Hardy. 

“ Poh ! ” said Yen How. 


Minute after minute rolled by in a silence punctua- 
ted by the faint puffing sounds of Yen How's lips— a 


344 The Yellow Danger 

quarter of an hour, twenty minutes. Hardy was look- 
ing forth with wrinkled, speculative brow over the sea. 
Yen How said : 

‘‘Did you have anything to do with the capture of 
the nine ships ? 

“ Which nine ships ? ’’ said Hardy. 

“The Japanese war-vessels.^’ 

“ Go to Hell, and ask me no questions.” 

“I suppose it was your doing, boy.” 

“ Perhaps.” 

“ What have you done with them, then ?” 

“ I have them.” 

“ Hot in Europe — come now.” 

“ How do you know that ? ” 

“ I have searched.” 

“ Europe is a good big place. Yen.” 

“ Big, no. A green billiard-table, my son ” 

“ With pockets.” 

“ So you have got them — in a pocket — really? ” 

“ I may. There is no telling.” 

“ If you had, you would not try to make me think 
that you had.” 

“Ah,” said Hardy, of the two one fathom the 
deeper. 


Caught in a sort of fascination, in a feeble, flaccid 
species of mutual mesmerism, they could not leave 
each other. Intense hatred and intense love are, of 
course, inverse forms of the same thing, and their 
manifestation is the same — an instinct for contact. 
A stab, a kiss — these are resultant varieties of the 
instinct. Through a grating a dog and a cat will 
maintain a mutual watch, lingeringly, for hours, averse 
to part. Here was something of that sort — a warfare 
and an attraction between a whale big as an ocean, and 
an elephant, monstrous, four-headed, big as a continent. 

And as all grand intensities are primal, elementary, 
and resemblant to the passions of childhood, so the talk 
of these great men was not altogether imlike the wrangle 
between two bitter, lingering schoolboys, sitting on 


, The Meeting 345 

a bench, with lumps in their throats— fastened to- 
gether, unable to part. 

There were few words, and a long interval, and few 
words, and a long interval. So a dark hour passed. 


Hardy said : 

What a beast you must be. Yen, to torture a poor 
boy like that ! What a sad beast ! ” 

Poll ! You do not know anything. I had worse 
in store for you than that, boy.” 

What a damned reptile for God to make ! ” 

Abuse away. Your mind is not really first-class, 
after all. You are the slave of old, popular surface- 
ideas. A reptile is no worse than anything else, boy. 
If he is stronger than other things, he is better than 
them.” 

‘‘ Ah, well, if that were so, I should be glad, too, 
Yen. There is not much to choose between us, now, 
in that way.” 

What, you are of the species, too, then ?” 

Something of that sort, perhaps — if venom makes 
the reptile. It is your own fault. You have made 
me like yourself. By the Lord, I warn you. Yen 
How . . . ! ” 


Poll ! it is a question of strength, not of venom. 
You can be as venomous as you like. But what can 
you do ? ” 

Nothing perhaps ; and perhaps something.” 

Suppose you had a fleet to beat me at sea. Do 
you know how many I am sending over ? All at once ? 
You canT dream. Twenty millions. AVhat could 
you do with them ? It would take you a year to 
shoot them all. But suppose you did ; there will be 
some more hundreds of millions left. You cannot 
exclude the innumerable. What could you do with 
them ? Be as venomous as you like, my son.” 

“ Ten good men against a hundred million rats— I 
bet on the nieii,” 


346 The Yellow Danger 

Poh ! I bet on the rats/’ 

“ On the side of the men — science.” 

Science. What sort of science ?” 

The science of the gunmaker, of the tactician, of 

the ” 

Well ?” 

“ Yeed I say it ?” 

"Yes, say it.” 

Of the — chemist.” 

And at the word Yen How started as though pricked, 
by a goad. He said nothing. 


^^But, after all, you are a fool. Yen.” 

Ah. How so ? ” 

W'ell, now, I suppose you are a learned sort of 
dog. You know science I dare say ; you know history, 
and on what trajectory the world has run so far. But 
it seems to me — can it be that you have .^reaBy^^iever 
caught a glimpse of the one big, fugiti’sne Thing 

‘‘ And you, my son ? ” 

^‘Yen! sometimes it hits me straight in the eyes 
in one blinding flash of lightning — a momentary flash, 
happily, for no staggering eyeball could bear it long.” 

“ Ah ! And what is it you see ? ” 

A tendency in the world — the hell of a current — 
a secret design, Mr. Chinaman.” 

‘^Well, suppose I have seen it too, boy, or guessed 
it ? Why call me a fool ? ” 

Because this invasion of yours is not in accordance 
with the tendency so far ; and the tendency is jolly 
strong !” 

‘‘You think the tendency is English in feeling ; 
and I say it is Chinese ; that’s all.” 

“ I’ll swear it is not Chinese, Yen How.” 

“AVell, I don’t care. Tendency or no tendency. 
Poh ! A tree has a tendency to grow, all the universe 
is trying to make it grow — but how if I come with a 
saw and cut it down, my son ?” 

“ If you cut it down, yes. But if it is older than 


The Meeting 347 

that old sea there, and has in it the toughness of eter- 
nities, and is as wide as the girth of the earth. ...” 

A murmur of contempt came from Yen How. But 
his left eye glanced a moment upward at the darkened 
heaven. 


But what is it you are doing here, my son ? How 
if I have you captured now ? ” 

‘‘You cannot. I have help near. I could more 
likely capture you.” 

“I would not bo easily captured, you know. But 
what is it you want here, sir ? ” 

“ I received your present of the child’s heart. I 
came to make you one in return. I have dropped it 
inside the window of the house yonder.” 

“Ah, what present ?” 

“ The present of a lock of hair.” 

“ Ah, yes. Is she safe 9 ” 

His voice dropped low, clandestine, wheedling. 

“Yes, she is safe.” 

“ On board your ship ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“I knew. I heard your cannon. You are a devil 
for cannon, my son. But I do not look perturbed, I 
think. A man like Yen How knows how to wait.” 

“ Then wait.” 

“ I am waiting.” 

“ It need not be for long. Yen.” 

“ Poll ! a day or two.” 

“So soon ? ” 

“ Meanwhile, if you do not want me to strangle you, 
get off this soil.” 

“ Yes — I must be going.” 


Another half-hour, and Hardy sprang suddenly 
upright, a lank dim figure in his ulster. It was not 
very far from morning, yet no sign of light. 

“We shall meet again, then ? ” he said. 

“ To-morrow, perhaps,” answered Yen How. 


34^ The Yellow Danger 

Or to-day/^ 

So true. It is morniug now. Say to-day, perhaps, 
then, boy.-’^ 

Well, to-day. . . .’^ 

One walked hurriedly away ; and the other, sitting 
there in the dark, smiled above his nose. 

As for Hardy, he flung himself upon the cabin- 
cushions of the steamer as she turned her hows west- 
ward, and for four hours slept there, Ada Seward 
asleep, too, on the opposite side. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 


TO-DAY.” 

Suddenly, a breath, a murmur, a thrill, a word of 
Life, ran like an electric wave through the length and 
breadth of Britain. 

By wondrous marvel there were once more solid 
war-ships in Portsmouth port — ships friendly, belong- 
ing to England, not made for England by English 
hands, come from nowhere ! By wondrous marvel . . . 
by the might of the Almighty God ... by His un- 
speakable favor. . . . 

With this miracle was coupled by the people, with- 
out knowledge, by mere infallible intuition, the magic 
name of Hardy. . . . 

Early on the Thursday morning the wild rumor 
spread, incredible, yet believed. And at once the entire 
nation rushed into undoubting hope, gladly casting off 
its gloom, smitten with new and strange assurance of 
its high and world-wide destiny. And all the daily 
private business of life now, for the first time, utterly 
ceased, and men stood wondering to wait and watch 
the throes of Time, agape as though scribbled across 
the sky in Sanscrit of everlasting red they beheld the 
signature of God. 

As for doubt, with rash fate they fiung it quite 
away. In England — once more — were ships ; and in 
England, — once more — a Captain of ships. 

At this thought a thrilling heat swept through the 
blood of every British being. 

And there was a rumor abroad that, besides these 

349 


350 The Yellow Danger 

marvelous battleships — nine, it was said, and more — 
there lay suddenly assembled that Thursday morning 
in the inner harbor of Portsmouth, a quite unaccount- 
able crowd of other ships, Atlantic greyhounds, Nord- 
deutscherand Austrian Lloyds, Eoyal Yaval Eeserve 
Merchant Cruisers, prodigious four-masters, tenders, 
Scotch and Irish coastguard vessels, unarmored cruis- 
ing ships, transports, colliers, trawlers, wooden mer- 
chantmen of every build, thronging the harbor. 

A great unseen ferment and movement, a wide busi- 
ness of preparation, unknown to the general mass of 
the nation, must have been going forward for many 
days. But to what end the concentration of all 
these promiscuous crafts? Clearly, not a fighting 
end ! 

At eight. Hardy stepped upon the Dover Cross 
Wall ; and as if to show how with the awful and mo- 
mentous is mingled the grotesque, and how ‘^some- 
thing infects the world,’^ there, before him, on the 
quay, stood a bowing, long-haired figure. 

Hardy recognized him at once, and a sound of vexed 
impatience started from his lips. 

Edrapol tendered his shriveled card. Hardy did 
not take it. He said : 

“I know.” 

Edrapol was all bows. He said : 

“ I take this liberty, monsieur — sir. I find myself 
without a friend to make me a small service in this 
country. ...” 

“Well, now, is it possible ?” said Hardy. 

“You refer to^ ?” 

“ To your frivolity, monsieur.” 

Edrapol bowed. 

“ I am here in response to your letter, monsieur. 
Between gentlemen ” 

“ I have no time I Is it that you still wish to fight 
with me ? ” 

“ The question is explicit, monsieur — sir. Can you 
ask ? Am I not here to make you a favor, since you 
were unable to present yourself with me ? Such terms, 
between gentlemen 


“ To-Day ” 


3Si 

''But you know, do you not, that it is not legal to 
fight in that way in England ? ” 

Such a smile smiled Edrapol ! 

"Monsieur !” he said reproachfully. 

" Well, come now, I will fight you,’^ said Hardy 
suddenly. 

Out swept EdrapoFs arms, and down curled his com- 
plying hack. 

" But not to-day, you understand.’^ 

" To-morrow — perhaps — the deluge ! ” 

" I cannot help that, sir You are, 1 take it, a great 
man for rules and ceremonies. AVell, then, 1 keep you 
to your rules. It is not, I presume, a usual thing in 
your country to fight duels at a moment’s notice ? 
Well, then 

" But, monsieur ” 

"1^0. I have no time. I am going away to sea to- 
day. If I come hack safe, we fight at the first mo- 
ment, as I promised. Even if you choose to meet me 
at my landing-place, which will, I think, be Hover, we 
fight there. You will easily find me ; and I will 
provide you with a second, and everything. If I return 
at all, I shall be here by to-morrow week — nine days. 
I think that is not beyond the usual interval which one 
takes to arrange preliminaries, so you cannot complain. 

I cannot stay longer. Bon jour, monsieur.” 

Hardy walked away, while Edrapol shrugged, look- 
ing after him. With the girl, Seward, Hardy pro- 
ceeded to the Ship Hotel. 

He at once wrote a letter to old Eobert Mason, bid- 
ding him come for the girl, recommending her to his 
strict surveillance, and making certain monetary pro- 
visions for her future. 

He then despatched four telegrams : one to Ports- 
mouth, announcing his coming ; one to the Admi- 
ralty ; a third to a Dr. Fletcher of Harley Street, in 
these words : " Send at once the things promised to 
me on board Hirosahi^’ ; the fourth to one Henrik 
Bjbrnson, a I^orwegian, living in Parliament Street, 
Westminster, in these words : "Hope you will not fail 
to be with me by noon,” 


352 The Yellow Danger 

He himself made his way without delay to Brighton, 
and thence onward by the coast to Portsmouth, arriv- 
ing there shortly before eleven. 

Looking abroad from the Hard, the Cumber, the 
quays of Portsea, the whole harbor seemed a mere 
endless tangle of masts and rigging. 

By this time the four thousand gentlemen who 
formed Hardy’s army of blue-jackets were distributed 
among the nine new-arrived ships of war, the rank and 
file partly furnishing their own former officers, and 
being partly officered by the remnants of the regular 
service. 

The entire still-living crew of the Ipliigenia — the 

Hundred and Eighty ” — were borne in the HirosaM, 
flagship. 

We have not spoken of the doings of this gallant 
cohort subsequent to their departure from Far Eastern 
waters. 

They had found at Hong-Kong some coal-ships which 
they loaded, and brought forward in their wake. 
Again they had stopped at Singapore, and doubling 
the Cape, steamed by night, near by the African coast, 
through the Straits of Gibraltar ; the garrison on the 
Rock, at a loss as to their identity, concluding that 
they must be Italian. 

They were well provisioned in proportion to their 
number, and well coaled ; so, passing south of Sardinia, 
they steered northward to M. Dumas’ uninhabited 
island of Monte Christo (which is some twenty-five 
miles distant from the nearest land), prepared for a 
lengthy stay, there being tAvo or three coves and bays 
affording very good anchorage. 

The steam-pinnace of the Ipliigenia carried a small 
quickfiring gun mounted on a pedestal for’ard ; and 
Hardy, on leaving his men, gave instruction that any 
craft which might come near enough to sight the fleet 
should be chased by the pinnace, and, if not captured, 
sunk. As a matter of fact, only three small Corsican 
crafts Avere captured, and their creAvs retained at the 
island. 

Hardy himself left them in the Conrad^ and at He 


“To-Day" 


353 

fVElbe contrived to make terms with the padrone of 
the Maltese speronarc in which lie reached England. 

The Conrad he left behind, in order to serve as a 
despatch boat. 

Here, then, ^ during some weeks, remained the 
Hundred and Eighty under the lazy Italian sky, shoot- 
ing goats, and looking to their ships and guns. The 
Japanese whom they had with them they retained till 
the end of their stay. 

At last, with glad hurrahs, they saw the ship, flying 
the agreed flags, wdiich came to recall them ; and on 
the fifth morning were at Portsmouth. 

If it was true, as Hardy maintained, that it was men 
and not ships which fought a battle, the ships being 
only the tools of the men, then the Hirosahi was now 
a great fighter. She was gallantly manned. 

In addition to this, she was a wonderful tool : the 
largest etfective-tonnaged ship that had ever been 
launched anywhere ; the latest and most exquisite 
product of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding 
Company. 

But with the fleet which we may call British col- 
lected at Portsmouth the resources of Europe were not 
wholly exhausted. Among them, arrived during the 
night, were four ram-cruisers, a large corvette, two 
ram-monitors, and five torpedo gun-vessels from the 
Xetherlands, the remainder of Holland's armament 
having been caught by the Japanese, or being with her 
East Indian ^^avy ; there were also three small Xor- 
wegian torpedo-vessels ; also, the first question asked 
by Hardy at Portsmouth was this : ‘‘No sign yet of 
the Spaniards ? ” Tliere was none : the reason being 
that, as the entire home-navy of Spain left her by 
America lay at anchor in Lisbon harbor, together with 
some Portuguese, they had been attacked by a Japanese 
cruiser-squadron. Not one escaped without damage. 

So rapid had been the course of events, that no ships 
from across the Atlantic had yet arrived. It was not 
until half-past eleven, that a great cheer was heard 
raving vaguely on the ships assembled in the port : and 
at once it spread up the harbor, re-echoing with unL 

23 


354 The Yellow Danger 

versa! acclamation. Tliree fast cruisers, flying the 
stars-and-stripes, had arrived. They brought the news 
that the whole American Navy was on the way — but at 
a distance behind which made it certain that they 
would be late for the battle. However, as the Ports- 
mouth force passed down Spithead, they were joined 
by a force of nine Spanish sail, mostly very small, con- 
sisting of torpedo gun-vessels, all unarmored. 

Thus in this new Armada, the Spaniard and the 
Englishman, and the American, in strange neighbor- 
hood, fought side by side. 

There could be no doubt as to the day, or even the 
hour, of the final forward step of the yellow races. 
Already, at two of the previous night, it was known in 
London that incalculable masses of men had put off 
from Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, St. Valery, Treport, 
Dieppe, all along that coast, borne mostly in flats with 
single paddle wheel astern, in French-barge fashion — 
the most elementary form of steam motion — requiring 
from eighteen to twenty hours to attain the nearest 
point of the English coast. 

The front of this floating host must, therefore, be 
upon British soil at some almost calculable moment 
during the afternoon. 

They were, as a matter of fact, retarded by an event 
which, though normal, came upon every one with the 
effect of a surprise : the air, which for six days had 
seemed settled in a thick stagnation, at about ten in 
the morning — moved. A sensible breeze sprang up 
from the N. W., driving the sea-surface in sharply- 
lined ovals before it. 

And at once there was a slight lightening of the 
murk of the atmosphere. 

Near noon a brief meeting of captains took place 
at Government House. Hardy had little to point out, 
except that the battle upon which they were about to 
enter was with men of different, less nice, morale than 
ordinary European sailors — clever apes — islanders, yet 
real foreigners on board a western ship-of-war. He 
tossed his hand, and added : It is true they are flushed 
with a consciousness of power, gentlemen, and are 


“ To-Day ” 355 

greatly superior in metal and numbers. But that will 
not weigh too much with you.’^ 

He also said that when definite orders went abroad 
on the impending of the contest, it was his will that his 
purposes should be explained by captains and com- 
manders to every person in the fighting fleet. 

He^ also said that they would be wasting their 
energies in this battle, unless one man, whom he had 
reasons to think would be there, were killed or cap- 
tured ; and he himself undertook to discover, without 
fail, in which ship that man was borne. 

Immediately a move was made by captains towards 
their ships in the port, and a few minutes after twelve 
the signal ‘‘ weigh went up. 

At the same time a great bustle of preparation was 
taking place within the harbor itself. Dark smoke 
left particles of soot on flapping sail. A host of boats 
flitted to and fro. Never did Gosport, Portsea, Ports- 
mouth, Southsea, and the forts around them, and the 
still harbor between them, hear so widespread a 
rumor of rattling chains and hurrying feet, and 
shouted God-speeds, and ordering voices. 

Cumberland and Southsea Castle Forts hooted a 
volley of blessings and farewells as the war-ship fleet 
slipped down the flood-tide. A few minutes later the 
nine Spaniards hove in sight. 

The fleet was also augmented by the HerOy the Niley 
the SfaXy the two gunboats taken in the battle of the 
Channel, patched up now, and three French composite 
gun-vessels captured during a Mediterranean battle. 

They made up a respectable flghting-power : the 
nine captured ships being considerably the most power- 
ful of the Japanese navy, and the Hirosahi the most 
powerful of ships. 

Yet it was only the audacity of Hardy that would, 
with any hope, have led this force against, we will not 
say the weight, but the numbers, opposed to him ; and 
the havoc which overtook his comparatively little fleet 
in the battle that followed would certainly, had his 
judgment been absolutely cool, have been foreknown 
to him — or perhaps was foreknown. 


356 The Yellow Danger 

Since the year 1892 Japan had placed orders with 
firms all over the world for a hundred and seventeen 
new ships, making an aggregate of some hundred and 
fifteen thousand tons, lialf to be completed by 1902, 
and lialf by 1900. At the period of this neiv pro- 
gram, she already possessed a very respectable navy, 
and at the time of the outbreak of the European war, 
more than one quarter of the new ships were already in 
her hands. 

Hardy therefore opposed a fleet of forty-three ships 
all told (only eleven being ships of a high elass) to a 
fleet of one hundred and thirty-nine sail, including 
the Chinese vessels, mostly of extreme modernity, and 
high fighting power. 

His main dependence at this time seems, as he said, 
to have been upon the comparative morale of the two 
crews. He commanded a fleet manned, except for the 
Continentals, wholly by British gentlemen and Ameri- 
can marksmen ; the enemy were imitators, acquainted 
with tactics recommended in books, incapable, he con- 
ceived, of originating, incapable of combating origi- 
nality. He guessed, too, that small as was his force, he 
happened to have a superiority in one weapon — not 
in general a very reliable one — the torpedo. 

Perhaps trusting to one or both of these things, he con- 
trived to give the impression (though it is questionable 
if he was as sincere as usual) that, on starting from 
port, he was without suspicion that he might now fail 
to account for Asia as he had accounted for Europe. 

The breeze freshened, but the air, though lightened, 
continued murky ; there was some difficulty in deci- 
phering signals ; and to facilitate messages by trumpet- 
call, the ships moved onward in close formation, the 
Dutch to the extreme starboard, the Spaniards and 
Americans to port. 

Ten miles astern spread far the great mass of 
merchant craft. 

Alone sat Hardy in the HirosaTci conning-tower, her 
flag-captain and staff standing on the bridge. The 
conning-tower stood on the after-part of the fore- 
castle-deck, very strongly armored, and communicat- 


“To-Day” 357 

ing by a host of knobs, and an armored tube, right down 
to the armored deck, and every part of the ship. 

In that hour, so great a travail came upon this })oor, 
troubled soul, that he could hardly bear to live. Here 
was the Gethsemane of the young man. All the Care 
of earth burthened upon him : all the floods and the 
waters of Destiny passed over him. He groaned ; the 
forehead that rested upon his hand sweated gi’eat drops. 
A year ago he hud thought himself a simple Hamp- 
shire sailor-lad — and see, now, with the cracking 
thews of Atlas he must uphold the world ! Oh, if it 
be possible — if it be possible — This old cry of passion- 
ate agony rived through all his being. That he alone 
^ should bear the whole, he — one frail back ; that he 
J should be the ordained to shriek in solitary travail with 
the birth-pangs of the new Future that was to be, and 
be rent to shreds and atoms by the eruption of his 
monstrous offspring, this was piteous. To be a Sav- 
iour, it seems, is no light matter : the Kedeemer from 
Hell must himself traverse the flames. At all events, 
the brain upon which what we call civilization now 
depended was near to frenzy. That his toiling back 
could bear the horrid mass at all proved the dazzling 
splendor of the boy — but he writhed. The weight 
was strong : his sinews creaked. Also, in that hour 
of his gloom, his shattered nerves represented to him 
the world which he upheld as a world black, draped in 
crape. Oh, if it be only possible ...” again and 
again, in groan on groan, he uttered his agony of 
spirit, longing only to die, to die. And even as he 
longed, he sprang up briskly, and he rang : 

“ Twelve knots I ” 

A little S.W. of Beachy Head the fleet was joined 
by the fast private yacht of a gentleman who was acting 
as scout. He went on board the Hirosaki, and was 
conducted before Hardy. 

The Japanese fleet, be said, were on the way be- 
tween the Somme-mouth and the Sussex coast, but 
very much spread out, not apparently expecting serious 
opposition, and steaming at the rate of perhaps four or 
five knots. A vast breadth of channel was parterred for 


358 The Yellow Danger 

league on league with masses of barge-like craft, which, 
if one might conjecture, were concentrating toward the 
narrow part of the Strait. Their progress was very 
slow ; but some were by now certainly not more than 
nine or ten miles from the Kent coast. The gentle- 
man had passed so near to one mass as to see through 
his glass a distribution of some sort of green pottage in 
one barge, and what looked like a fight between two 
Chinamen in another. He had not been fired at. The 
boats were incredibly overcrowded. He had heard, he 
said with a smile, that about 70,000 men were massed 
upon Hastings, and that forty Maxims were in posi- 
tion on the sea-front. 

Shortly before four a scout of the enemy directed from 
beyond effective range the rays of two search-lights 
upon the British, and at once hasted back to eastward. 

By half-past, the British made out a great bank of 
cloud to eastward. The breeze had now freshened to 
a moderately stiff* gale from the northwest. For tlie 
first time for a week, hurrying dark clouds above were 
visible athwart a gloom of twilight. The sea was 
curling into fore-running hollows before the British 
stems, like backing pages, who, with bows and graces, 
usher in the visitor. 

John Hardy’s brain, and heart, and life, was in his 
eyes. He glared through his glass like a famished 
wolf. 

The bank of smoke quickly cleared ; he could discern 
forms of ships — eight miles from him, a line abreast — 
and moving, it was clear, rapidly. Legion was their 
name. His eyes started and stared ; he muttered 
with his lips. 

He gazed for two minutes, crazily, hundred-eyed ; 
then he started, and hissed a swift “ By God ! ” Then 
he flew to the communications. 

To be signalled to the fleet : 

Keep speed and formation. Use no torpedoes in 
combat.” 

To his own engine-room : 

Full speed ahead ! ” 

The engines of the HirosaTci instantly quickened 


“ To-Day " 


35 <) 

tlieir throb and complex turmoil. She forged forward. 
Her best speed was nearly nineteen knots. She was 
like an ugly, stout island in a hurry. 

The wondering question went pervading his fleet — 
was he about to fight the entire navy of Japan alone? 
Was he not rushing like the demented whom the gods 
destroy into the very mouth of hell ? 

The Hirosahi, we have said, was undoubtedly the 
best engine of war that was ever devised and built. 
She was armored with Harveyed nickel steel, and her 
belt, which extended from stem to stern, was over 
eight feet in depth, and nine inches thick throughout 
engine, boiler, and magazine spaces. How, above this 
belt, lier side to the height of the main-deck was 
covered with 6-inch armor for a length of some 250 
feet, enclosing two barbettes ; while at each end of the 
belt there was a curved bulkhead fourteen inches 
thick between the armored and main decks ; so that a 
quite complete citadel, 250 feet long, was formed. 

Her gun-casemates, moreover, were shielded both on 
the inner and outer sides, so that their crews worked 
under protection almost ideal ; while her barbettes, 
circular in plan, were protected with 14-inch armor, 
rising to a height of 4 feet above the upper-deck. 

AVith such a tool of war something might be dared. 
Hearer she went, plowing in impressive, squat haste 
straight towards the middle of the interminable 
Japanese line ; and while the rest of the British fleet 
were still beyond effective range, a sudden rain fell from 
the military-tops of two cruisers upon her decks. 

The Hirosahi did not answer. 

AVith ripped decks and annihilated boats, on she 
went, straining her engines, every egress from the stoke- 
holds closed by the devoted men who toiled like sala- 
manders in her depths. 

AVithin two minutes from the opening of fire, a shell 
from the 32-cm. gun of tlie AhitsuscMma (one of tlie 
two ships at the point where Hardy aimed to break the 
enemy’s line) had burst through the shield of the fore- 
barbette, killed or wounded all its crew, and disabled 
the turn-table. 


360 The Yellow Danger 

And now a horror of wonder and consternation spread 
among tlie crew of the Hirosalci — at her strange silence 
- — at her frenzied adventure. 

Where was Hardy ? Was he stricken dumb ? Was 
he dead ? Was he dancing mad ? 

An ashen-faced London barrister in one of the port 
casemates of the 6-inch quick-firers on the main-deck 
gasped in a dry-throated whisper : 

“ He is dead ! ” 

And Brassey of Kiao-Chau* ashen-faced also, gasped 
in answer : 

Bah ! what are you talking about ? ” 

The engines roared, the sea whitened, the Hirosalci 
walked grandly down an arcade of flame and smoke. 

Slie had passed through the first line of the enemy 
between two cruisers, the Ahitsuscliima and the 
Hasidaie, which she could have sunk by a mere snarl 
of her broadsides. Yet she did not speak. 

Before her came two more, the Ten-riOy and the 
Takao ; and the two before and the two behind con- 
centrated upon her their fires. 

Every one looked to see her sink ; certainly, it was only 
a question of moments — of how many moments the fire 
continued from such close quarters. The outward ap- 
pearance of the ship, by the time she reached the second 
Japanese line abreast, was one of mere ruin and havoc. 

The enemy were as astounded at her conduct as her 
crew. But in a few instants they knew — they thought 
that they knew. 

Twenty or twenty-two cables behind the second 
Japanese line came a ship of considerable size, alone — 
that is to say, protected by the whole praeposited mass 
of her navy. Yet she was a ship-of-war. 

As soon as the Hirosaki emerged from the world of 
coppery gloom into which she had passed, as it were, a 
living thing, to come forth, but for her central citadel 
and propelling mechanism, a dead — she turned her 
bows upon this ship. 

The ship was the Voshino ; though powerfully armed, 
she was one of the ships called ‘‘ unarmored ; smoking 
over a map in her cabin sat Yen How. 


“ To-Day ” 


361 

Hardy had reached him ! One well-directed shell, 
one happy torpedo, and, beyond doubt, the yellow host 
will be leaderless. . . . 

And now, at last, the Ilirosahi talks ; but she talks 
in such a sorry, effete, and slip-shod manner, that a 
whole crowd of Japanese captains who are already 
hastening to the rescue of that one precious ship, 
laugh in their conning- towers. Was there ever such 
miserable aiming ? such false sight ? Not one of the 
shots takes effect. The Yoshino keeps on her way 
untouched. The rash Hirosahi has run that appalling 
blockade of flame in vain. And to complete her 
ignominy, immediately upon her first feeble effort, she 
turns tail, and goes blundering in defeated flight to 
the S.E. 

She was evidently the flag-ship of the British, and 
the fact that she had reserved her fire in her passage 
through the fleet, and had then singled out, and fired 
upon, the Yoshino, proved to the Japanese that the 
British knew in which ship Yen How was borne, and 
that their one and only object in fighting now was the 
destruction of Yen How. 

The one and only object of the Japanese must there- 
fore be the protection of that one ship, the Yoshino. 

It was in order that they might arrive at this very 
conclusion, that Hardy had made his awful passage 
through their fleet, had abstained from firing, — and 
had fired upon the Yoshino. 

It was his design that the enemy should be, above all 
things, anxious to protect her. And he used the 
Hirosahi for the adventure, because he knew well that 
no other ship at his disposal could have continued on 
her way forty seconds through that flaming avenue. 

But the on-lookers slandered the HirosahVs crew in 
supposing them such very sorry gunners. The same 
mind which had bid them fire had bid them miss. The 
Yoshino was needed. 

‘‘ The morale of the fighters ! ” With the most 
astounding precision Hardy seems to have divined it. 
How much of his mind the enemy would guess, and 
exactly where their guessing power would cease^ he 


362 The Yellow Danger 

appears by some divine instinct to have known infal- 
libly. A European crew, knowing the fame of Hardy, 
and observing his present fatuity, might have surmised 
some design, all the more appallingly rough and rude 
in its results, in proportion to its consummate depth. 
The Japanese simply read the surface of his mind, and 
were proud of their reading. 

They concluded that his main design was to destroy 
the person of Yen How — and it was — they were right. 
But his thoughts were as much beyond their thoughts 
as the heavens are beyond the earth. 

He goes careering to the S.E., and three very swift 
cruisers that follow in chase he promptly sinks. 

Yonder, at the front, the general battle has begun, 
and a sound breaks out like the sound of ten million 
rocks battering in rowdy degringolation down a wooden 
stair reaching from the moon to the earth. And see 
how, really, that is good for Hardy — native to the very 
temper of his mother’s womb — the sole rough music in 
the universe which can make his large spirit dance I 
It would be hard now to recognize in him the gloomy, 
cowering, burdened wight, who, half an hour ago, 
groaned in the HirosaJci conning-tower. His exhilara- 
tion is boundless ; his face is flushed. If it were pos- 
sible, joy now would re-dye the hair which grief had 
blanched. Here is his element, his day — great Thurs- 
day — and he, once more, Saxon Thor, red-handed, 
swinger of thunderbolts, tosser of linked lightnings. 
The oil of gladness is on his head. He feels his arm, 
his soul, his ordination. He knows that he cannot 
fail. 

He wheels : — the Hirosahi, left alone, is steering S. 
__S.W.— W.— Then W. by N. What is left of the 
European fleet, thirty-flve craft, most of them already 
gravely injured, have now changed places with the 
Japanese, they being to the east, the Japanese to the 
west of them. Both sides put their helms down to re- 
form and change. Only a solid phalanx of twenty ships 
remain in guard about the Yoshmo, which is slowly 
forging ahead in her old direction. 

The Hirosahi is signaling. The old starboard half 


“ To-Day ” 


363 

of ships are to folloAv her in single file ; the old port 
are to watch evolutions of Ilirosaki, and follow suit on 
their side. 

Immediately the Hirosakfs bows turn a little to the 
south of eastward. Nineteen ships follow her with 
bows a little to the south of eastward. Sixteen ships 
follow her with bows a little to the north of eastward. 
At the utmost speed of the craft of lowest power they 
steam away in these directions. 

The yellow men discern that the white are fiying. 
Or is it not rather a mere feint to get at the precious, 
guarded ship ? Yes, that is soon evidently it ! for the 
two files of retreating ships turn south and north, and 
then in wide curves westward. The Japs are after 
them. 

Between the Europeans are intervals of not more 
than six cables. The crowd of Japanese come two 
abreast, the nearest four about a knot astern of the two 
hindermost Europeans. The HirosaM leads now the 
port European limb, the Hero the starboard. 

The two hindermost Europeans in the two limbs are 
the Duch corvette Van Galen, and the British- Japan- 
ese battleship Fugi ; these are the only direct combat- 
ants, and are using stern-guns. In three minutes the 
Van Galen dives, and the Fugi cranks and stops. The 
British force is reduced to thirty-three. 

So far not a single yellow ship has sunk. Five, in 
the first charge, have been disabled, the rest only seri- 
ously injured by the destruction of unprotected crews. 
Hitherto they are victors twice and thrice. 

They gain upon the retreating squadrons. The 
average of their speed is greater than that of the 
Europeans. 

Suddenly, after four knots from the start. Hardy 
turns, and in a short outward curve comes back east- 
ward. The starboard limb with a short outward curve, 
follow suit. 

And now it becomes quite clear to every one on his 
side that, whatever his design, he is accomplishing it 
at a murderous, a disastrous cost. For as the ships 
come back, they present a long line of broadside to a 


364 The Yellow Danger 


still greater length of Japanese broadside — at horribly 
close quarters ; and in the sudden, exclamatory, almost 
momentary, outrage of hell-fire which burst from 
both sides, the ships sink fast. The Yankee aim is 
like Fate ; the gentlemen of England acquit themselves 
well, wdth precision, with tympana that do not quite 
burst, with brains that do not quite faint, with hands 
that do not fail. In that loud squall of wrath they 



[The arrows in the diagram will show the course he took, S being the re- 
gion of his start, and the dots in the central part representing the twenty 
ships round Yen How.] 


sent twenty Japanese and Chinese ships to their graves 
in the two limbs ; and they themselves are nine the less. 
The Japanese can afford the loss. Not they. 

And now, in a minute — so fast do they tear along — 
the hostile fleets are parted. The enemy, all very 
near together, go on through the evolutionary curves 
which the British have described, and come following 
eastward. 


“ To-Day 


36s 

They look now for a rush of the British upon the 
guarded ship, ready to follow. But no rush comes. 
The British keep on their way almost directly east. 

A rush will come. But Hardy intends it to come 
when the Japs are in a position to intercept and cut 
him off. His thought, his patience, is far beyond their 
divination. 

On he goes, leading them grandly through the mazes 
of that tragic, coiling minuet ; and they follow, hasting 
gladly after him, triumphant, blind, fated. 

The Pied Piper and his retinue . . . ! 

His ships sink one by one. He is aware of it -wnth 
guilty disquiet. Will enough be left for his purpose ? 
The falling out of each one by the wayside is to him 
like the taste of the second death. 

The Japanese follow, not gaining ground this time, 
purposely keeping their distance, even increasing it, 
waiting for the next curve to westward, and the disas- 
trous swift broadside. 

. And round again goes Hardy, wheeling outward, 
this time in a broader curve ; and outward wheels his 
northern limb. 

And once again clatters the sudden, exclamatory 
outrage of hell-fire, bursting from both sides, and Hardy 
comes out of it leaving behind him four, and the 
Japanese seven ships. 

But the numerical strength of Hardy^s remaining 
ships by no means represents his real strength. He is 
far weaker than he seems. Twenty-two floating craft 
are still visible to his eye, but craft so broken and un- 
done, that he knows them incapable of further serious 
combat. Xearly ninety Japanese are as good for flght 
as ever. 

Once more he is running westward, and the enemy, 
conscious now of easy victory, follow. 

Westward — till his two foremost ships reach the po- 
sitions marked A and A' in the diagram ; and then 
hard to starboard races his helm. He goes driving 
sharp and straight with straining engines for the 
packed group of ships around the Yoshino. 

This, then is the rush ! But the Japanese ships, 


366 The Yellow Danger 

their foremost being the position marked B and B', are 
nearer to the Yosliino than the British — are in the ex- 
act position in which Hardy, at the price of so much, 
has led them by the nose in long twining dance in 
order to place them. 

What they will now do, he knows with certainty : 
they will cut him off. And, in fact, they turn sharply 
inward towards the precious, guarded ship, in order to 
intercept, and with one unanimous battery of their 
entire navy, finish at once his small remainders. 

And thus it has suddenly happened that the whole 
yellow fieet is packed into a mere bundle of ships whose 
crews can speak to each other, whose steersmen need be 
cautious to avoid collision. 

And when Hardy sees them so, — herded together by 
his harsh and baleful forethought, — like sheep driven 
into the penfold, — he knows that the yellow wave 
is dammed, and the greatest of his works is accom- 
plished. 

He could shriek aloud with cruel glee. . . . 

Abroad roams his eye over the sea at his sinking and 
battered fleet. And as he looks he sees the founder- 
ing of the Xile. 

And swift, with concentrated fury, the massed 
Japanese open fire upon his feeble residue. 

At that moment the two limbs of the British are not 
more than three hundred yards from the front of the 
enemy. 

And at that moment it is that an appalling, horrid, 
unparalleled thing is happening to the Yellow Men. 

Hardy has signaled to his ships to launch among 
the crowding enemy every possible torpedo in his 
fleet. 

His prohibition to use torpedoes in the combat had 
led his captains to expect some such final order. They 
were well ready. 

The torpedo was, of course, the most deadly of the 
then instruments of war. If it exploded beneath a 
ship, it destroyed her. But precisely the 

most deadly was also in general, the most unreliable 
pf weapons. In general it might b§ Qounted upon to 


“ To-Day 


367 

explode, not beneath an enemy’s ship, but beneath a 
friend’s, or, more likely still, beneath nothing at all. 
Xo serious tactician depended upon it. 

In other words, it was not a good engine of aim at 
a given target, for it usually missed the target. Its 
course was more or less deflected by the waves — many 
things happened to it. 

It Avas left to the eye of Hardy to perceive that its 
proper function Avas not one of aim at all toAvard a par- 
ticular target, but one of loose direction toAvard a gen- 
eral mass. IJnder such conditions, it might be counted 
upon to annihilate in an instant all the assembled 
navies of the earth. 

Prompt upon his order, the restes of his fleet, shat- 
tered as they were, Avere able to launch a ripping navy 
of nine more torpedoes than there Avere croAvding 
Japanese and Chinese ships. The Hirosahi sent flve : 
one from a bow-tube above the water-line, four sub- 
merged. All the other ships Avere ships with a varying 
number of tubes. 

Three exploded in mutual collision before they 
reached the hostile fleet. 

The rest arrived. 

Men clapped and squeezed their hands upon their 
ears in expectant horror. The sea began to start, and 
rush and quake. A swift series of venomous, behe- 
moth bangs — quickeyiiiig into ever madder sioiftness — 
and bawling at last into a steady brooling roar of pas- 
sionate volleyed thunder that seemed to proceed from 
the very throat of Jehovah — rent the universal air, and 
split the hearing of all about that sea. 

In London, men, three-eared, lifted a listing hand ; 
far over Europe the rumor of it was heard ; it was 
heard in Paris ; it was heard in Brussels. 

The British ships, shocked at each SAvift-recurrent 
detonation, jerked and started in convulsive throes, 
like dying fowl, upon the spasmic, kicking water — 
started, and leapt, and dived, and foundered. And as 
though in response to some vast upheaval of nature, 
doAvn upon the sea sAvept at once a passion of Avind, and 
a furious rain, and a black an^total gloom, 


368 The Yellow Danger 

Wide over the ocean the floating millions of yellow 
men heard the staccato of that dread tumult. And 
many a one imitated and repeated the sound with his 
lips. 

Pop, pop, pop, they went ; and pop, pop, pop, they 
went. 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE CRIME ’’ OF HARDY. 

It is not our business here to defend what has been 
called by leisured persons, sitting secure in their studies, 
the ‘‘ crime ” of Hardy. 

Napoleon, taking the ‘^Laws of Heaven^’ into his 
own hands, poisoned at Acre a number of his sick 
soldiers to save them from the hands of a cruel enemy. 
This, too, raised a cry, and was called ‘‘crime.” 

Another of that genus took upon himself to break 
the old Sabbath, and this raised a cry ; but he did not 
mind. 

Personally, we believe that the Great Man has, 
naturally and properly, these powers ; that what he 
does is right ; that the King can do no wrong. 

Having cleared the sea of hostile war-ships in that 
world-tragedy in the Channel, Hardy found himself 
confronted with the problem of an army which was 
approaching a long line of English coast — not far off — 
an army which was not so much an army as a locust 
host. 

What was he to do with them ? 

He could not set about and shoot them, for that, 
supposing he had had a large fleet, would have taken 
him a year, as Yen How said. Moreover, he had next 
to nothing to shoot them with. 

Possibly he might, by spreading out his vast merchant 
fleet, armed with small guns, along the southeast 
coast, have kept them off till they starved ; and this 
was supposed by his captains to be the course he would 
adopt. 

24 


369 


37o The Yellow Danger 

But twenty million putrefying, derelict Chinese in 
barges floating at random in the Channel fair-way for 
the next year or two does not seem to have been after 
his mind. And to starve them on the open sea . . . 
even his pitiless heart revolted from that. 

Or, they might have been driven back to France ; or, 
seeing that they could not land on England, they 
might have returned to France on their own initiative. 
Bub Hardy did not wish them to return to France, 
thinking that there were already there a sufficient 
number of millions to engage the energies of his 
country for many a long day to come. 

And so it happened that with the next morning’s light 
—for at last something resembling a sun was seen, 
in spite of a furious gale of wind now blowing from 
the northwest — a strange, new spectacle, somewhere 
rather south of the latitude of Harwich, was seen — 
an immense multitude of ships covering the entire 
circle of sea, crawling painfully northward, each 
one trailing behind her a long line of barges crowded 
with men. 

Hardy had the twenty millions in tow. 

Hot one had landed. To this diversion from their 
purpose they had made practically no resistance. If a 
Chinaman fired at the tug which came to secure his 
barge, the barge was promptly sunk by way of stern 
example. Most were unarmed with fire-arms. 

For many hours during the afternoon and night of 
the battle thay toiled by the aid of search -lights, the 
ships hav^ing rendezvous at the H. Foreland, where, at 
about midnight, they congregated. 

And now began the long, toilsome voyage north- 
ward. 

What made the sufierings of both whites and Chinese 
worse, was the fact that, from the first bleak sunrise 
to the last, a heavy wet sea was running in the direc- 
tion of the gale, and the creaking and laboring ships 
continually drenched their length in spray shipped 
over the dipping bows. A monotonous, light rain fell 
from the dark-gray and hurrying sky ; and wide over 
the heaving, stale sea- water rolled down stretches of 


The “ Crime of Hardy 371 

foaming sea-spue, as though the sea, sea-sick of itself, 
spumed the vomit of its bitter old unrest adown its 
own weary bosom. Through the cordage skirled in 
many tones the gale ; and salt was in the weird sagas 
that^ it skirled, and salt on the drenched decks, and 
salt in the wet sea, and the world was made of winds 
and brine. 

Ever and again, a ship staggered through every 
timber, and stopped, tugged from behind by a back- 
ward swing of her ponderous following. Then on, 
crawling, again. 

Here the tail led the dog. 

Ever and again, pop would go a stout hawser, and 
away would go drifting to the S. E. the lessening 
scream of a barge-load of Chinamen. 

Northward, northward, in vast funereal procession. 
And far yonder in the van of all — the Hirosahi, shat- 
tered-looking, butting, bulkily at the billows, as one 
who has seen worse things, — and come through them. 
In her cabin, which is crowded with wounded men, 
sits Hardy; and near him, in long colloquy, a man 
named Henrick Bjornson, a Norwegian sea-captain, 
who can shout broken English. What Hardy’s deaf 
ears cannot make out, the man writes. 

Northward crawls the unspeakable procession. It 
crosses the latitude of Hull, of Edinburgh ; it ap- 
proaches the Norway coast ; it is at Bergen, at Chris- 
tiansund. Always it crawls northward, and the Hiro~ 
said, like the Pied Piper, leads. . . . 

On the Tuesday foreday, the Hirosahi, in latitude 
67° 48', slackened speed, and, while the dawning was 
still gray and ineffably bleak, the stragglers of the 
fleet came in. 

Hardy had reached the grave-side now — the side of 
the one grave which Europe offered him for the burial 
of his dead. 

Here and now a very great stress and sound of 
stormy winds was abroad, struggling for the held-on 
hat, blowing long ribbons of rope, and rolling before 
it billows of the sea. 

The Hirosahi trumpeted a semicular formation, and 


372 The Yellow Danger 

this for about an hour, from ship to ship, went trum- 
peted, till it reached the outermost rings of ships ten 
miles away. And in another hour and a half the 
vastest curve of ships, stretching northeast and south- 
west, that had ever been seen by an eye — the horns 
looking like tiny toys to the center, and invisible to 
each other — lay assembled, slowly steaming, or sailing 
close-hauled. 

The morning lightened, but with ever a slow, and 
drear, and raw melancholy. It was the morning of an 
execution. 

Hardy, with the flaps of an oilskin hat about his 
ears, in oilskins to his feet, stood clinging to a roping 
aft, facing the strong blast that loaded his breast 
with spasms of violence, and struggled for the ends of 
his flapping and quarreling skirts. And near him, 
in oilskins, stood a tall, broad-bearded man, the sea- 
captain Bjbrnson. 

Bjornson touched him. 

Hardy said : 

^AVell ? 

Bjornson took out his watch, held it before Hardy’s 
eyes, put his mouth to Hardy’s ears, and shouted : 

It is time ! ” 

Hardy said : 

All right.” 

Already in the look of the water round, there 
was something horribly o^itre. It seemed as if the 
sea was getting calm — too calm for the wind that 
blew. It acquired a certain pallid oiliness in its 
heave. 

Hardy called his trumpeter ; he said : 

“ Tell the captain of the Umbria that I want a 
hundred and fifty Chinamen taken on board his ship — 
at once.” 

And down the wind went his command to the neigh- 
boring ship. 

And in ten minutes this other : 

“ Ships to cast off barges, and follow flag-ship in 
same formation, west by south.” 

At once the Hirosahi put her bow in this direction. 


The “ Crime ” of Hardy 373 

The other ships, as their hawsers astern tightened on 
their new course, slipped them. A thousand hawsers 
slapped the sea. 

The ships moved on. The barges remained. 

But not stationary. They, too, moved — slowly — 
glidingly — right in the teeth of the wind — northward 
— all of them, over many a mile. 

The barges fell into long strings, and patches, and 
colonies, like trailing sea-weed, always, as they glided, 
retaining their fixed relative positions. 

The men in the barges saw surely that they moved. 
But what moved them ? The crude early-morning 
blast blew upon their most woful, sallow faces. 

Their rate of motion, from moment to moment, 
quickened. ... 

There was something now detestably baleful in the 
aspect of the water. The great waves had died to a 
glassy, heaving smoothness. Only, here and there in 
irregular patches over the surface, broke out stretches 
of vapid foam, or ghastly bubbles. And the ocean 
went gadding, gadding northward. 

This is the first mood of the Maelstrom. . . . 

Then a wonder happened : A string of barges shot 
suddenly askew, and went wildly hasting in a long 
curve to the east ; and another string shot askew in a 
western curve ; and in not more than a minute a 
hundred thousand barges were flightily ranging in 
curves of every shape and direction over the sea, flying 
a while — then slowly stopping — then flying off in new 
curves again. 

Suddenly, all this motion ceased. The sea settled 
into a lake-like stillness, except for patches of bursting, 
simmering bubbles on its face. 

But with the suddenness of the thunder-clap came a 
change. The surface rapidly assumed a morose hue of 
the deepest blue, a blue which was liker black. And 
at once it began to heave itself up into waves, mountain- 
high, which danced like tlie Merrymen in a swinging, 
oscillatory, up-and-down jig, as if buoyed up by some 
great submarine power which dandled, and tossed, and 
danced them. And down the steep sides of these 


374 The Yellow Danger 

cones of water poured the barges of the clinging, 
staring, screaming men. 

, But now again, suddenly, the mood is changed — and 

' a Voice goes forth over the waters, a doleful sound _of 
the sea. The high dancing waves die down, and im- 
mediately an awful wide change is taking place — a 
rapid, intense reorganization of the whole sea-surface — 
a breathless hurry and scurry of preparation for some 
unspeakable drama of the deep. There are tracts of 
black and choppy sea tumbling in roaring haste one 
way, and tracts tumbling like herds of ten thousand 
bellowing bisons another, as if flying across to take 
sides in some impending agony. And all at once the 
whole is over : and every wave, and eddy, and barge, 
and flake of froth slips into the sweep of one mighty, 
bawling, racing whirlpool. 

AVithin the writhing uppermost ridge of this vast 
circumference, invisible under a flerce white wrath of 
shrieking spray, fly with a thousand wings the barges 
of the yellow men, fly on even keel, fly uplifted, 
spurned from the polish ebony of the dizzy basin of 
water. And as they fly, the storm smothers their 
gasping breaths, and lifts their hair. And as their 
speed intensifies to the droning sleep of the spinning- 
top, their queues stiffen and rise horizontal like dart- 
ing serpents ; and twenty million straight and fluttering 
pigtails, keeping ever their distances, race in narrow- 
ing whorls towards a bottomless, staggering abyss, 
that yawns, six furlongs broad, within the central 
space. 

Six miles away, his glass at his eyes, stands John 
Hardy, musing. , . . 


Opposite Christiansundjthe Hirosahi and the Umhria 
were very near together ; and here a change of crew 
took place ; the entire crew of the Umhria tranship- 
ping into the Hirosahi, and one hundred and thirty of 
the Hirosaki^s crew going over into the Umhria. 

These hundred and thirty consisted exclusively of 
** Hundred-and-Eighty ” men of Kiao-Chau fame. 


The “ Crime of Hardy 375 

It was a mysterious proceeding, incomprehensible to 
Umhria men, but readily comprehensible to some of 
the ‘^Hundred and Eighty/’ These had sworn an 
oath. 

On board the JJmbria were a hundred and fifty 
Chinese. 

Murray (he of the Diary) took over with him to the 
Umiria a small packet which he had received from 
Hardy’s hand — which Hardy, in his turn, had received 
from a Dr. Fletcher of Harley Street. 

The packet contained some hypodermic syringes, and 
three vials, containing a thick dark-gray liquid. . . . 

The Hirosaki then continued on her southward way ; 
but the Umhria put in at Christiansund. 

There, on the strand near the town, shortly before 
morning, they landed two of the hundred and fifty 
Chinamen. In the right forearm of each of these 
two men was a tiny needleprick ; and as they went 
walking toward the toTO, an ink-black spot appeared 
on the cheek of each, and a black froth ridged their 
lips. . . . 

The Umhria then continued her voyage, which 
lasted two weeks. She stopped at Copenhagen, at 
Konigsberg, at Stockholm, at St. Petersburg. And 
wherever she stopped, she landed two Chinamen with 
black spots on their cheeks, and a black froth at their 
lips. . . . 

She continued her voyage. She stopped at Amster- 
dam, at Boulogne, at Bordeaux, at Genoa, at Con- 
stantinople, at Odessa, at seventy-five European 
ports. At each she left two Chinamen with needle- 
pricks in their forearms. 


^^Well, well, Brassey,” said Hardy in the Hirosaki 
cabin, his arm filing spasmodically round the neck of 
Brassey, who had remained with him, ‘‘well, well, 

boy. I was once — I was once — different from this ” 

His arm dropped heavily. Then suddenly, he pushed 
Brassey violently on the breast. 

“ Go away — go away — sir,” he cried. 


376 The Yellow Danger 

And in an instant liis arm dropped heavily again, his 
chin on his breast. 

He was no longer sane. His hand was thicker than 
itself with brother’s blood. His final hour of darkness 
and tragedy was hasting to meet his life. All his sky 
was an ink of clouds. Xow again he tarried, cowering, 
in Gethsemane. 

He no longer slept. Now he roamed the cabin like 
a wild man : now he sat still and languid, his head 
on his hands, his eyes having in them the senility 
of old people's. Every five minutes he bent double in 
paroxysms of moist coughing. Always the sailor, 
Brassey, was by him. 

The Hirosaki arrived at Dover on the Friday evening 
at seven. A red brand of fever was then on Hardy’s 
brow. 

He was taken through the crowd in a close carriage 
to the Lord Warden Hotel. The news was hashed 
abroad that he had arrived, and all the bells of Eng- 
land gladly lilted and welcomed his coming. Hardy 
could not hear them. 

For him was neither joy nor sleep. Doctors were 
summoned, but Hardy would not see them. 

He threw himself on a bed ; but rose again and 
paced the chamber in shirt and trousers and socks to a 
late hour. 

At eleven there was a ring. Brassey, who was in an 
ante-room received a card at the door from a servant, 
but said there was to be no admittance of any sort that 
night. 

Hardy appeared suddenly at the inner door of the 
ante-room ; he said : 

What is it ? ” 

Brassey handed him the card, and Hardy looked at it. 

‘‘ Ha ! ha ! ha ! ” he laughed at once. ‘‘ My friend 
Edrapol ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! Edrapol, my old friend ! ” 

He had wholly forgotten Edrapol. 


Behind the ruins of St. Mary’s Church, northeast 
of the town, at two that morning — they fought. 


The “ Crime ” of Hardy 377 

Here the strong, prone will of Hardy had asserted 
itself. He had insisted, and could not be withstood 
by Brassey. EdrapoBs second was a sailor from the 
Hirosakiy Hardy’s was Brassey ; and the weapons used 
were Hirosaki swords of Japanese design. 

A full moon shone. Yonder on the footpath leading 
from the East Clilfs waits a carriage, which has been 
coachmanned by Brassey. 

It is a barbarous duel. There is no doctor there. 
Positively only four men are in the secret. 

They take places, sword in hand, stripped to their 
shirts. The seconds take their places too. There are 
two Admiral Colomb ship-lanterns. 

This is a duel without venom on either side. In 
one mind there is the mere prone desperation of an 
hour of tragic gloom ; in the other a mere coxcombish 
pleasure at finding once more a sword in his hand, and 
an antagonist before him. 

Only two hearts throb as though they must burst the 
imprisoning bosom — the hearts of the seconds. The 
hearts of the principals are cool, though Hardy’s body 
burns with fever. 

The moment comes. Hardy coughs ; Edrapol waits. 
Then the swords lift and cross. 

And now ensues a three minutes’ contest between 
the most exquisite conceivable science on the one side, 
and the shrewdest, quickest wit on the other. 

Briskly ply the complex, gleaming steels, with feint 
and thrust and parry, in tierce and quarte and stac- 
cado, stab and hew — to the infinite surprise of Edrapol, 
who finds here a man that can fight, and is glad. 

He braces himself to the matter, Edrapol. He rises 
a la hauteur of his antagonist. But rise as he may, 
the fame of great Edrapol is henceforth stained, and 
his sleeve — with a thin trickle of blood. 

He flushes somewhat, Edrapol. It is necessary, 
then to coitper court 9 He rises to a still greater height. 
Among the long white hairs of the famous man plays 
the night wind. 

Then there is the sudden Ah ,” and the limp 

failure^ and the strong contrast of red on white, and 


378 The Yellow Danger 

the sword clattering to the ground. The steel of 
Edrapol is in Hardy’s bosom. 


The next morning Britain learned with woe and ter- 
ror that he was wounded. He lay at the Lord Warden 
Hotel, and was unconscious ; but as to the wound, it 
was not dangerous. So ran the bulletins. 

But by the next night he was tossing in acute hyper- 
pyrexia, and was delirious. Miss Isabel Jay had hur- 
ried to his side in almost crazy scare, and about his 
apartment waited two royal ladies. In one of the 
anterooms of the suite sat old Mason, stricken to death, 
swaying his decrepit body from side to side. 

Half-hourly bulletins were issued by the royal 
physicians. 

At one time during the second night. Hardy seems 
to have gone back in imagination to the period of his 
tortures, uttering fearful screams, and exhibiting signs 
of the most abject terror. But toward morning, he 
became calmer under the influence of opiates. 

About noon. Miss Jay’s hand being then firmly 
gripped in his, he said quite coolly : 

‘‘A good strong coffin of Harveyed nickel steel 
dropped into the middle of the Channel. ...” 

And there stopped. K^or spoke again till some three 
hours afterwards, when, lifting uj) his right arm, he 
cried in a loud voice : 

By the Lord, I warn you, Yen How . . . ! ” 

After this the delirium appeared to leave him. He 
sank into a quiet sleep, which, however, was made omi- 
nous by a throat- rattle, and the venous transparency 
of his far-sunken eyelids. 

The nation waited on in a bitterness of suspense, 
humbling before the Almighty in anguished prayer for 
his life, l)ut for his life. . . . 

But at seven in the evening the end came. Hardy 
suddenly woke from his feeble slumber, jerked his 
body upright on the bed, as if an answer to some 
official summons and roll-call, screamed a sharp 
‘‘ ! ” and gasped, and died, 


The “ Crime ” of Hardy 379 

His Calvary was not heroic — without vigor and 
rigor 

That the great man of England should perish by the 
hand of an impossible, very -foreign professional duel- 
list, here was the very irony of Destiny. But so it 
was. 


CHAPTEE XXXIV 


THE BLACK SPOT 

With the death of Hardy the minuter detail of our 
chronicle must end. 

The results of his malignest act of enmity against 
the yellow race — results far surpassing in horror and 
vastness those of any of his other acts — he did not live 
to witness. 

It is certain that he could never have expected so 
widespread a result from the distribution of the in- 
jected Chinamen about the European coasts, for the 
simple reason that he did not know of Yen How^s in- 
auguration of the Yellow Gods at Paris, which inau- 
guration was the chief cause of the universality on the 
Continent of the new Black Death. 

As soon as an idol-less Chinaman was griped by the 
malady, or even saw the black spot on a neighbor’s 
cheek, his first instinct was to rush toward the one 
place of hope — the temple at Paris. And as he rushed, 
he went spreading far and wide that winged plague, 
that more putrid Cholera, dissipating it among thou- 
sands, who, in their turn, rushed to infect wide mil- 
lions. Within three weeks Europe was a rotting 
charnel-house. 

But there came a check to the spread of the malady. 
It was effected partly by the bullet, and partly by fire. 
From every army headquarters troops were drafted 
abroad by the Japanese generals, with the mission of 
shooting down every plague-infected person. Entire 
towns were surrounded by armies, and then burned with 
all they contained. Over Europe these great holocausts 


The Black Spot 381 

mixed the solemn flares of their funeral flres with the 
running shrieks of massacred millions. China had 
turned her glutted sword upon herself ; and on the 
earth was heard the wails, and seen the smoke, of 
Tophet. 

Yet in the course of some five months the plague 
was over, the flames died down, the massacres ceased ; 
and still the white races found themselves confronted 
with the long, enormous task of clearing out of Europe 
over a hundred million yellow men. 

The work was only made possible by the fact that, 
immediately on taking possession of a country, each 
Chinese army of occupation had, as we have explained, 
split itself up, become demobilized, and filled the towns 
and villages like ordinary settlers, after slaughtering 
those of the inhabitants whom they found there. 

But in each of the old European countries a nucleus 
of the great nomad hosts had been ordained by the 
forethought of Yen How to retain their organization ; 
and these, provided with headquarters, stafe, and gar- 
risons, remained as standing armies, using the military 
centers and apparatus of the nations they had dis- 
placed. In Kussia there remained three million yellow 
soldiers ; in Germany and Austria, four ; in France, 
two ; in Italy, one ; and Scandinavia some thousands. 
These ten millions would, but for the plague, have 
numbered seventeen millions. 

And it was with these ten that the two English armies 
withdrawn from France and Germany at the moment 
of the irruption, together with the white races of the 
New World and Australia, had to do. 

The United States had no army worth mentioning ; 
alone of nations she had, however, that spirit of in- 
telligent audacity which, by a species of swift magic, 
can turn her every citizen, not merely into a soldier, 
but into a general. And now she was roused : a wave 
of ineffable indignation, of high enthusiasm, of tender 
brotherhood, passed over the land. Into all the ceiiters 
of enlistment, thousands upon thousands of volunteers 
poured each day. Before the end of the plague, tliree 
army corps of 100,000 men each had been shipped from 


382 The Yellow Danger 

New York, Boston, and Philadelphia in detachments of 
twenty or thirty thousand raw levies, bringing vast sup- 
plies of field-stores, horses, ammunition, and cloth- 
ing. The New World was coming back to save the 
Old. So far off and unguessable are the meanings of 
Destiny. 

The six millions of Canada and the six of Australia 
sent out each a hundred thousand of theij^sons; and 
the fieets of the states of South America, forgetting 
their mutual jealousies, conveyed an army of mixed 
races, numbering eighty thousand, to the shores of 
Britain. England became the rendezvous of the white 
world. 

Still, at the beginning of the four campaigns, all 
these contributions provided an army of less than a 
million, with which to confront ten millions of yellow 
men. 

The ten millions, however, were divided into five 
war-hosts. To fight their combination would have 
been impossible ; to destroy them in detail not so 
hopeless. 

The great brain which could have welded, and 
wielded, and led them, by sure, infallible common- 
sense, to certain victory, was dead. 

The main white army fought in Germany : it con- 
sisted of the British forces withdrawn from France 
and Germany, and was led by Kaiser AVilhelm. (Wil- 
helm, having refused to leave the Fatherland on the 
Chinese irruption, had been seized by the members of 
a conspiracy initiated by Count Caprivi ; the gallant 
man had been taken hound to a ship, and brought over 
to England. To him was given the command of the 
most seasoned division of the invading armies.) 

The French division was led by Lord Wolseley in 
person, with General Miles as second in command ; it 
consisted solely of the small standing army and the 
new levies from the United States ; Australians and 
Canadians combined followed Lord Eoberts to Cron- 
stadt ; and the Latin races of South America were led 
by Sir Evelyn Wood into the Bay of Naples. 

The same general system of tactics was adopted by 


The Black Spot 383 

each of these armies — the tactics of Fabius : ill-armed, 
unskilled, and inchoate, as were the hosts with which 
they fought, those hosts were still overwhelming in 
number, desperate in temper. The idea of the white 
men was to wear them out by galling sorties and 
swift retreats ; to demoralize and undermine them by 
strategic subtleties, harassing attacks, and untiring 
maneuvering. 

The campaigns, accordingly, were long-drawn. The 
setting sun of the century was already on the point of 
disappearance when, simultaneously, in Lombardy and 
at Moscow, the last armed mob of yellow men in those 
countries scattered to the winds. 

But through all that space of plain from AVaterloo 
to Quatre Bras, the conflict between the small army, 
now an army of veterans, and the large army, now not 
so large, was still at issue. And in the flat-lands round 
Stralsund, AVilhelm, with his English, was hard put 
to it to maintain a footing. 

It was here that the great crowning event of that 
world-drama of the yellow deluge transacted itself, on 
the 25th of August, 1900. 

It was toward four in the afternoon : a dull, hot day, 
which made the outposts on both sides rely rather upon 
their ears than seek to penetrate with the eyes the 
marsh-mists that enveloped the plain. 

The Kaiser, in harmony with long-tried tactics, had 
organized that morning a Reconnaissance Corps, speci- 
ally drafted from the wings of his army, for the pur- 
pose of hurling it in a well-timed sally upon the ad- 
vance lines of the Chinese. The division consisted of 
the Seaforths, the 1st Royal Dragoons, the Royal Irish 
Regiment, and other troops of the first class ; cavalry 
and infantry being supported by nine batteries of 
Horse Gunners. The corps rested till the afternoon 
on the seaward slopes, somewhat toward the left of the 
line of fortifications. The rank, chill mist thickened 
from hour to hour. 

The division consisted of not more than 20,000 in- 
fantry and 5,000 sabers, a body not too unwieldy for 
agile movement and ready retreat, yet large enough to 


384 The Yellow Danger 

leave motionless behind it ten times its number of pig- 
tails. 

Soon after four it went moving rapidly over the plain. 
It was commanded by Lieutenant-General Henderson 
of the Buffs. 

The Chinese army, at this time, was not without dis- 
cipline of a kind ; it had seen fire, and stood it, and 
returned it with effect. It had become a genuine in- 
strument of war. 

The alarm that the white men were upon their center 
was no sooner given than the advance ranks put them- 
selves in a position to receive the onset of the English ; 
and when a hot fire from all arms came pouring into 
their midst, they only wavered slightly ; by the time 
the white infantry had come into moderately close con- 
flict with the front ranks, a battery commanding their 
advance from a rising ground near by was plowing 
them with shrapnel. 

And a few minutes afterwards, a rally in the yellow 
front ranks was effected by three of their vast regi- 
ments hurrying up from the main body. 

A colonel of the 2d Life Guards, clearly perceiving 
now that the advance had been too rash, that retreat, 
in spite of the mist, must mean mere havoc to the 
whole corps, pointed frantically at the battery, shriek- 
ing above the din, Guards ! those guns must be 
taken ! ” And, with sabers waving, the regiment went 
careering for the guns. 

Before they reached the foot of the hill, they were 
mown down almost to a man. 

The Eeconnaissance Corps, now inextricably involved 
with the enemy, seemed cut off from hope. But a 
dragoon, who had been despatched to warn head- 
quarters of the position of affairs, met two regiments 
of infantry hurrying up at the double, and soon learned 
that fighting orders had been passed all along the 
British lines. Wilhelm had resolved upon a decisive 
blow there and then. 

The motif oi this mad-looking step lay in a despatch 
which he had just received by sea from Lord Wolseley. 
By a supreme stroke of tactics, originating from his 


The Black Spot 385 

second in command, the Commander-in-Chief’s Texas 
rangers and Colorado bushmen had accomplished at 
Waterloo an appalling rout of the enemy, leaving seven 
hundred thousand dead on the field. The Belgium- 
Germany railway lines were in his hand : he was on the 
point of setting out to augment the forces round 
Stralsund. 

Wilhelm thereupon made a calculation of rates and 
distances, and partly in the hope of relieving the in- 
tangled Reconnaissance Corps, with rash faith in his 
lucky star, and eager once more to whirl his own saber 
in the air, he resolved, late and dark as it was, to give 
instant battle. 

It was like the attack of an eagle upon an elephant. 

With splendid suddenness his whole army hurled 
itself forward. The onset was dashing, impassioned, 
gallant, but desperate. The Chinese front lay along a 
length of ten miles, and precisely because every attack, 
at every point, made by the British was successful, 
therefore their destruction was the more certain. 
Everywhere they were surrounded. While the battle 
was still desperately raging, night fell. 

Already there lay on the plain, of the British 20,000 
dead, and of the yellow men 300,000. 

At eight the whirl and uproar of battle was still un- 
abated ; and the heart of the Kaiser misgave him, as 
he looked from a mound through a night-glass at the 
wheeling scrimmage in which the 1st Dragoons were 
desperately seeking to extricate themselves from the 
trampled death, and the furious tornado of life, around 
them. From far away through the night there came 
to him an occasional unanimous scream of ten thou- 
sand parching throats — sure sign of some finished vic- 
tory of the yellow man. 

But either he had calculated well, or the tendencies 
of the world were on his side. 

Away back, nearly as far as Franzburg, a party of 
wild horsemen, with knees jammed into the ribs of 
horses without saddles, come scampering through a 
brigade of astounded yellow men, whicli stood awaiting 
fighting orders. They are white men come pelting 


386 The Yellow Danger 

from nowhere, born far wliere the sun sets : the 
farthest East and the farthest AVest have met. 

And, presently, the wide storm of clattering, spatter- 
ing hooves come thundering in overwhelming torrents, 
in thousands and hundreds of thousands, in heaped-up, 
ever-succeeding accumulation, like rivers of rushing 
sound. Their impetuosity cannot be checked, because 
the wind cannot be checked ; and they attack in the 
rear ; and each of them is a general. 

And now the eyes of Wilhelm, noting wide confusion 
from afar, lighten ; and strange raving rumors and 
growths of sound come to his ears from out of the dis- 
tant dark. And within fifteen minutes, the millions 
of the yellow men, hurried inward from front and rear, 
are no more an army, but an astounded rout, flying 
from nothing upon death, caught in error and delusion, 
bewildered, blind, and panic-struck. They cast away 
their weapons in a horror of haste, they trample them- 
selves to death in purposeless fury. E^ever on the 
earth was half such an extravagance of carnage in 
similar space, such an excess and waste of slaughter, 
such a lanaliU of death, such a frenzy of milh. The 
white men, drunk with blood, become mere beasts of 
prey, chopping at flesh in feeble, exhausted ecstasy. 
The night grows old, and still they hunt, they track ; 
they slip in moving lagoons of gore, and fall, and faint ; 
and die trampled, careless ; or rise, and hunt, and hack. 
The battle degenerates into a debauch of hell. . . . 

And with the morning light the plain of Stralsund, 
viewed from the summits of the low hills, is like a saf- 
fron ocean of stagnant putridity, whereon twist and 
coil, feeding on the ancient slime, myriads of jet-black 
snakes. Here in Armageddon — the last great agony of 
struggle between the white man and the yellow : the 
Act is over. 

But only the Fourth Act. The earth remains ; 
Spring, and the joy of life, and the intensities of the 
pulse, will return. Let us look a moment, four months 
later, at a great Assembly in the Albert Hall at Lon- 
don. It is on what, properly speaking, is the third 
day of a new century — the 3d of January, 1901. 


The Black Spot 387 

Far up the tiers of galleries human heads throng in- 
distinctly, incalculable as leaves in Valombrosa. The 
great circle of the hall is gay with drooping flags ; the 
platform is draped with them : the flags of two nations, 
which yet, by a mystery of Destiny, are forever one. 

About the building the people of the two nations 
throng all the streets, knowing that this day is a 
Hegira of the world, such as has not yet been. And 
orators emerge above that sea of heads, and there are 
huzzas, and wide tendencies and motions, precisely 
as when through the innumerable forest the breezes 
run tittering in torrents of rumors. 

But within, on the platform, the President of the 
American States is sitting, and beside him the Prime 
Minister of England stands speaking : and sometimes, 
so solemn and w^orld-wide is felt to be the occasion, that 
the spoken words have in them something of the strain 
of prophecy : 

“This reshipment, then,^^ he says, “of the rem- 
nants of the yellow men to their natural home being 
now well on the way toward completion, we are faced 
by the task of rehabilitating and administering that por- 
tion of the earth, which, since authentic history, has 
played the greatest part in its events. Once more to 
us of these modern days comes forth the command : 
Go forth and replenish the earth, and be ye fruitful, 
and multiply. Happily, the task before us is made far 
less complex by the extraordinary event of which our 
eyes have been the witness. In the complexity of the 
nations, who, before that event, contended for the 
possession of the earth, there had come to be a certain 
madness, an impossibility of solution, a Babel of pur- 
poses. Never on any eternal basis could Peace — the 
first essential to that predicted ten-thousand-years of 
Man’s upward march — have been established. Now 
our way — most marvelously, if you will think of it — 
has been made plain before us. One all-dominant race 
has been so clearly marked out by Destiny to renew 
and administer the earth, that no impulse to contra- 
dict the fact will arise in any other : a race divided, 
indeed, into two portions, yet so essentially one, as to 


388 The Yellow Danger 

resemble not so much two brotliers, as tVo arms of the 
same body. If the configuration of the map of the 
world has shown it to be convenient to hand over to 
the Western branch of that race the administration of 
the continent of Asia, while the Eastern exercises its 
special sway over Europe and Africa, it is not that any 
bargaining has been found necessary between us, as 
though the left arm should envy the right. Bather 
has our thought been of the immense difficulties which, 
whatever convention be made, must now necessarily 
lie in both our paths. Yet not to that near and ardu- 
ous future, but to the farther and fairer time which, 
surely now, lies ahead, let us all look. The centuries 
are not ended — the years of Destiny will unfold them- 
selves. The Apostle John, being in the Spirit on the 
Lord’s Day, predicted that Time shall Be Ko More ; I, 
standing before you on the threshold of this late new 
Era, predict that Time sliall Be. I foresee that the 
relative positions of the Suns shall change ; and the 
Sword of Orion shall curve into a Pruning-hook, and 
between tlie Virgin andtlie Lion there shall grow hoar 
— a rajjprochement. Viewed from this mood, the race 
of man seems but to have begun its course ; yet not so 
immature is its history but that it has had space to 
exhibit, if never before, then now, the fact of some 
Secret which informs it, and some Wind which wafts it. 
It moves — it moves ! The dreams of the poets were 
not extravagant enough ; see, the world overtakes 
them, and surpasses tliem ! to-day, already we see the 
strange accomplishment of that vision of yesterday : 

“ When the war-drums throbbed no longer, and the battle- 
flags were furled 

In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World. ...” 


THE END. 


Hifc 7 90 





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